Ned Zelic

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Personal information
Ned Zelic
Full name	Nedijeljko Zelić
Date of birth	July 4, 1971 (1971-07-04) (age 36)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position	Centre Back
Club information
Current club	FC Dinamo Tbilisi
Youth clubs
1987 1988	Canberra Deakin AIS
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1991 1991-1992 1992-1995 1995 1996 1996-1997 1997-2001 2002 2002-2003 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006 2007-present	Sydney Croatia Sydney Olympic Borussia Dortmund QPR Eintracht Frankfurt AJ Auxerre TSV 1860 München Kyoto Purple Sanga Urawa Reds FC Wacker Tirol Newcastle Jets Helmond Sport Dinamo Tbilisi	036 (0) 016 (1) 041 (1) 004 (0) 017 (1) 012 (0) 102 (3) 001 (0) 023 (2) 022 (0) 021 (1) 007 (0)
National team²
1989 1992 1991-1997	Australia U-20 Australia U-23 Australia	034 (3)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 8 January 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 24 August 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Nedijeljko Zelić, short form Ned Zelić [ˈzɛːlitɕ] (born on July 4, 1971 in Sydney), is an Australian football (soccer) player who plays for the FC Dinamo Tbilisi. He is of Croat origin.

1 Club career
- 1.1 Newcastle Jets
- 1.2 Back Overseas
2 International career
3 Trivia
4 Honours
5 External links

[edit] Club career

Zelic started his career in the old Australian National Soccer League where he played with clubs Sydney Croatia and Sydney Olympic.

Zelic spent most of the 1990s playing in Europe, most notably for Borussia Dortmund of Germany. He had a small stint at QPR, moving for £1.3 million, which was beset by injury. He did little to endear himself to QPR fans, blaming the hard English ground for his ailments. The London club soon cut their losses and he returned to Germany.

[edit] Newcastle Jets

In 2005, Ned Zelic agreed terms to a two year deal to captain the Newcastle Jets in the Hyundai A-League where he played out the whole season from central defence. The Jets finished fourth on the league table and lost to the Central Coast Mariners 2-1 on aggregate over two legs in the Minor Semi-Final.

In June 2006 he was released from his contract with the Newcastle Jets due to his wife being pregnant in germany. He was almost immediately replaced by Paul Okon, who will likely also take his direct spot in central defence in the team.

[edit] Back Overseas

After being granted a work permit, he signed a one-year deal with the Dutch second division side Helmond Sport in August 2006. In Helmond he worked again with his former 1860 Munich team mate Gerald Vanenburg, who was trainer there. He left Helmond however after only 3 months due to physical problems.

On the 15th of March 2007, Zelic joined Georgian club FC Dinamo Tbilisi on a free transfer.

[edit] International career

He has played for the Australian team but made himself unavailable after disagreements with coach Frank Farina. Zelic was a member of the Australian team that competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

With discussion in The Age newspaper that Zelic was up for a recall to the Australian national side around October 2005, Zelic did not make a return to the side and took up a career in the media. He first appeared as a football analyst on Australian television channel SBS during the World Cup Qualifier against Uruguay, and continued this role (alongside Andrew Orsatti) during the 2006 FIFA World Cup.