Stan Lazaridis

Stan Lazaridis (born 16 August 1972) is an Australian former soccer player. He was predominantly a left winger though he was known to perform at left-back. He notably played for Birmingham City and West Ham United and made 58 official appearances for Australia and was in the Australian 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.

In 2024, Lazaridis was appointed director of football at Perth Glory.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Club career

His reputation as a young left-footed teenager began with Olympic Kingsway where, despite his age, he intimidated many a defender with his change of pace.<ref>Century of Champions, The Modern Era Template:Webarchive</ref>

Lazaridis made his senior debut for West Adelaide Hellas in the Australian National Soccer League in the 1992 season. His dribbling ability and pace drew much attention on the Australian scene. At the end of the 1995 season he earned a move to Europe when West Ham manager Harry Redknapp encountered Lazaridis playing for West Adelaide during West Ham's pre-season tour of Australia in May, 1995.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Signed for £300,000 a poor debut and consistent injury problems made his debut season difficult when he made only six appearances.<ref name=WHU>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He scored his first goal for West Ham in a 1–1 away draw with Wimbledon on 18 March 1997.<ref name=WHU/> Over four seasons, Lazaridis played just 87 games for West Ham United and scored three goals.<ref name=WHU/> In 1999, he dropped a division to sign for Birmingham City when manager Trevor Francis signed him in a deal worth an eventual £1.7million.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Settling much better at St Andrew's, he played an important role in guiding the team up to the Premiership for the 2002–03 season, scoring one of the penalties in the play-off final shootout to help them get promoted to the Premier League.<ref name=Playoffs>Template:Cite news</ref> While at Birmingham he played in the 2001 Football League Cup Final.<ref name=FLC2001>Template:Cite news</ref>

Following promotion (and despite a raft of new signings) Lazaridis remained a regular player for the Blues, scoring the winner against local rivals Aston Villa in March 2003 and a classic goal against Everton in February 2004. After seven successful years at Birmingham City, in which he had become a fan favourite, Lazaridis was released at the end of the 2005–06 season after making 222 appearances for the club. He then looked to finish his career in Australia with A-League club Perth Glory.

Lazaridis made only 11 appearances for the Perth club in 2006–07. His time there was tainted when in January 2007, Lazaridis returned a positive drug test for anti-androgen Finasteride, a prescription alopecia medication, which was banned at the time. Although perhaps slim comfort to Lazaridis finasteride was removed from the banned list in large measure as a result of the widespread discontent that followed his unfortunate case becoming public.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

While noting his previous good character and making clear there was no evidence he had taken performance-enhancing drugs, he was found to have breached the rules and was given a 12-month suspension from football, mostly backdated.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In March 2008, Perth Glory manager David Mitchell cut Lazaridis from the club's A-League roster,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> prompting the player to retire.

International career

Lazridis made his debut appearance for the Australian National Team in 1993 as they played Kuwait.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He has 60 international appearances for the Socceroos and has one goal which he scored against Cook Islands.Template:Citation needed He played a major role in 4 world cup campaigns and was in the Australian squad at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Lazaridis was also part of the Australian squad at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			CupTemplate:Efn		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
West Adelaide Hellas	1992–93	National Soccer League	26	2	2	1	0	0	28	3
	1993–94		23	3	0	0	0	0	23	3
	1994–95		20	0	2	0	0	0	22	0
	Total		69	5	4	1	0	0	73	6
West Ham United	1995–96	Premier League	4	0	2	0	0	0	6	0
	1996–97		22	1	5	0	0	0	27	1
	1997–98		28	2	7	0	0	0	35	2
	1998–99		15	0	3	0	0	0	18	0
	1999-2000		0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0
	Total		69	3	17	0	1	0	87	3
Birmingham City	1999-2000	Football League First Division	31	2	4	0	0	0	35	2
	2000–01		31	2	8	0	0	0	39	2
	2001–02		32	0	2	0	0	0	34	0
	2002–03	Premier League	30	2	2	0	0	0	32	2
	2003–04		30	2	3	0	0	0	33	2
	2004–05		20	0	2	0	0	0	22	0
	2005–06		17	0	3	0	0	0	20	0
	Total		191	8	24	0	0	0	215	8
Perth Glory	2006–07	A-League	11	0	2	0	0	0	13	0
	2007–08		2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
	Total		13	0	2	0	0	0	15	0
Career total			342	16	47	1	1	0	390	17

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year<ref>Template:NFT player</ref>

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Australia	1993	3	0
	1994	4	0
	1995	6	0
	1996	0	0
	1997	13	0
	1998	0	0
	1999	0	0
	2000	9	0
	2001	9	0
	2002	0	0
	2003	2	0
	2004	8	0
	2005	3	0
	2006	3	0
Total		60	0

Honours

Birmingham City

• Football League First Division play-offs: 2002<ref name=Playoffs/>
• Football League Cup runner-up: 2000–01<ref name=FLC2001/>

Australia

• FIFA Confederations Cup: runner-up, 1997;<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> 3rd place, 2001<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• OFC Nations Cup: 2000,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> 2004<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Template:NFT player
• Oz Football profile
• West Ham United statistics
• Football Database profile
• Template:Soccerbase