Željko Kalac

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Personal information
Željko Kalac
Full name	Željko Kalac
Date of birth	16 December 1972
Place of birth	Sydney, NSW, Australia
Height	2.02 m (6'8")
Nickname	Spider
Position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	AC Milan
Number	16
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1989-1995 1995-1996 1996-1998 1998-2002 2002-2005 2005-present	Sydney United Leicester City Sydney United Roda JC AC Perugia AC Milan	24 (0) 1 (0) 43 (0) 115 (0) 79 (0) 4 (0)
National team**
1992-2006	Australia	54 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 3 December 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 8 October 2006.

Željko Kalac [ˈʒɛʎkɔ ˈkalats] (born December 16, 1972 in Sydney, New South Wales) is an Australian football (soccer) goalkeeper, who currently plays for A.C. Milan in Serie A. He is nicknamed "Spider" thanks to his height (2.02m) and large armspan, and is of Croatian descent.

He was an Australian international for more than 14 years, but has spent many years as understudy to first Mark Bosnich and later Mark Schwarzer. Interestingly, he has gained more international caps than both of them (Bosnich has 22 and Schwarzer 40 caps to his name). He has been selected as a member of Australia's 2006 FIFA World Cup squad and made one appearance at the tournament.

He joined Milan in the summer of 2005 on a free transfer, after his previous club A.C. Perugia was demoted to Serie C1 for financial troubles. Other clubs include Roda JC, Leicester City and Sydney United. A move by Terry Venables to take Kalac to Portsmouth in 1997 fell through when he was refused a UK work permit.

Despite only making three 1st team appearances at Leicester City, his final appearance was as a substitute in the 1996 Division One playoff final, coming on as a substitute during the final minute of extra-time. Being so big, Leicester manager Martin O'Neill believed that Kalac would be able to save penalties during the shootout. But then Steve Claridge scored with the last kick of the game, literally 20 seconds after Kalac had come onto the pitch, and the Foxes were promoted to the Premiership.

It wasn't until an ankle injury suffered by incumbent Dida in the first leg of the Champions League knockout stage against Bayern Munich that Kalac made his CL and Serie A debuts in a Milan uniform. He also played in the Coppa Italia tournament until Milan were eliminated by underdog Palermo on a disappointing 3-1 aggregate.

In Australia's final first round match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup between Croatia and Australia, Australian Manager Guus Hiddink surprisingly selected Kalac over primary goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer. With Australia needing a draw or better to advance and with the scores tied at one-all in the second half, Kalac fumbled a long range shot from Niko Kovač and conceded what he described as a "shit goal." Fortunately for Kalac and the Australians, Harry Kewell scored later in the half and they advanced to the Round of 16. After the match Kalac spoke of his relief: "You're looking at the ground to eat you up. Obviously for me, it's very relieving to get that result."^[1]

Kalac announced his international retirement on October 4, 2006. He played his last game against Paraguay on October 7, 2006, along with fellow international retirees Tony Popovic, Tony Vidmar and Stan Lazaridis.^[2]

On November 21, 2006, Kalac made his second UEFA Champions League appearance for Milan as he came off the bench to replace injured Dida in the final 13 minutes of the club's group match against AEK Athens. Dida tore ligaments in his leg and predictions said that he won't be able to play for two to three months ^[3], which will finally give Kalac a chance to make more competitive appearances for Milan. Kalac's first full game this season was on November 25, 2006 in Milan's 1-0 win over FC Messina in the Serie A.

[edit] References

^ "Schwarzer set for quick return", The World Game, 2006-06-23. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
^ "Kalac's exit spells end of keeper debate", Sydney Morning Herald, 2006-10-06. Retrieved on 2006-10-09.
^ "AC Milan G Dida out with knee injury", Yahoo! Sports, 2006-11-23. Retrieved on 2006-12-01.

	Australia squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup
1 Schwarzer \| 2 Neill \| 3 Moore \| 4 Cahill \| 5 Čulina \| 6 Popović \| 7 Emerton \| 8 Skoko \| 9 Viduka \| 10 Kewell \| 11 Lazaridis \| 12 Čović \| 13 Grella \| 14 Chipperfield \| 15 Aloisi \| 16 Beauchamp \| 17 Thompson \| 18 Kalac \| 19 Kennedy \| 20 Wilkshire \| 21 Sterjovski \| 22 Milligan \| 23 Bresciano \| Coach: Hiddink