Shannon Cole life and biography

Shannon Cole, born 4 August 1985 in Sydney is a midfielder who currently plays in the Australian football A-League for Sydney FC.

Shannon attended St Ambrose primary school, Concord West, and St Patrick's College, Strathfield. In 2003, He studied drama at the University of Western Sydney for 1.5years before putting degree on hold to pursue a football career.

Shannon Cole's early football career saw a series of stints with NSW state league clubs, in particular APIA Leichhardt, Dulwich Hill, Rockdale City Suns and Parramatta Eagles. He also left Australia for spells in US college football in the tiny Michigan town of Schoolcraft and semi-professional football with Waitakere United in New Zealand. Following this, Cole spent a month trialling with ambitious English Championship side Doncaster Rovers, before spending a stint with Israeli side Maccabi Netanya.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in July 2008, Cole reflected on these early globetrotting stages of his career: "With the college football, I had a friend over there already, so I went over for the year when I was 19 and it was just something I wanted to try, living away from home and live as a footballer. I kind of saw it as a personal challenge. Going to Europe was also great, but I don't have an EU passport at the moment and it made it difficult to get a deal. Being full-time with Doncaster, even for a month, was a great experience. The standard in Israel was also really high and there were a lot of really good, strong African boys there, but Netanya were looking for a senior player to come in and run the midfield, and I was just 22, so it didn't work out."

Shannon Cole signed with NSW Premier League club Sydney Olympic in 2007. During his time there, Cole was a member of the Sydney Olympic team that lifted the 2008 NSW Premier League Johnny Warren Cup, after a 2-1 extra time win in the final against the Sutherland Sharks. Cole provided the assist from a free kick for Olympic's first goal in this game, scored by Emmanuel Giannaros in the 52nd minute.

On August 15, 2008 he was signed by Sydney FC on a two year contract from Sydney Olympic. Chosen mainly because of his ability to play at left and right back or midfield. On the 23rd of August 2008, Cole scored a brilliant free kick against Central Coast Mariners that curled over the wall into the bottom corner to put Sydney in the lead 3-2. His free kick somewhat resembles Harry Kewell's. This proved to be the winning goal. Another goal the next week against Western team Perth Glory cemented his position in the team. He has recently been called up to the Australian national team.

In December he scored his third goal for Sydney in their 3-2 loss to Melbourne Victory. His goal was the first of the match, just less than 30 seconds into the game. He is one of the young talent for Sydney FC.

On 1 October 2008 was called up from Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek for the Australia national football team for a training camp, he was not promoted for the 22 squad against Qatar national football team, his second call was on 19 January 2009 against Indonesia national football team and played 73 minutes in his debut.

Career statistics

Youth career
APIA Leichhardt
Dulwich Hill
Rockdale City Suns

Senior career

2005 Parramatta Eagles
2006 Waitakere United
2006 Doncaster Rovers
2006–2007 Maccabi Netanya
2007–2008 Sydney Olympic
2008– Sydney FC

National team

2010– Australia

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