Josip Skoko

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Personal information
Josip Skoko
Full name	Josip Skoko
Date of birth	December 10 1975 (1975-12-10) (age 33)
Place of birth	Mount Gambier, Australia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Central Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Wigan Athletic
Number	24
Youth clubs
	AIS North Geelong Warriors
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1999 1999–2003 2003–2005 2005– 2006	Hajduk Split Genk Gençlerbirliği Wigan Athletic → Stoke City (loan)	106 (19) 099 0(8) 058 0(2) 040 0(0) 009 0(2)
National team²
1995 2000 1997–2007	Australia U-20 Australia U-23 Australia	051 0(9)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12 November 2007. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 11 September 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Josip Skoko (born December 10 1975 in Mount Gambier, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) midfielder of Croatian descent who plays for Wigan Athletic in the Premier League.

1 Club career
- 1.1 Early career
- 1.2 Wigan
2 International career
3 References
4 External links

Club career

Early career

Skoko has played with Hajduk Split (1995-Oct 99), Racing Club Genk (1999-2003) and Gençlerbirligi (2003-05). In 2002, Skoko captained the Genk side to the Belgian First Division championship. He was also an integral member of the Gençlerbirligi team, which progressed into the latter stages of the UEFA Cup in 2004.

Wigan

Skoko joined English Premier League club Wigan on a free transfer at the beginning of the 2005-06 season, although he has failed to maintain a regular place in the first team. On January 7 2006 Skoko signed for Football League Championship side Stoke City on loan until the end of the 2005-06 season.

In the 2006-07 season, Paul Jewell showed renewed faith in Skoko giving him an extended run in the side. The transfers of Jimmy Bullard and Graham Kavanagh to Fulham and Sunderland, respectively, in the summer of 2006 left a gap in Wigan's midfield and this led to him becoming a mainstay in the Wigan Athletic midfield, partnering Paul Scharner and Denny Landzaat. Skoko has just recently signed a new contract deal keeping him at Wigan until 2008.

International career

Skoko is an Australian international and made his debut for Australia against Macedonia in 1997. Skoko has been a main-stay of the Socceroos side since his debut, participating in two World Cup qualifying campaigns.

Skoko came on as a substitute in Australia's playoff victory over Uruguay to qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and captained a weakened Australian side against Bahrain in an Asian Cup qualifier.

On May 25 2006, Skoko scored a cracking volley from 23m for Australia in a 1-0 friendly victory over Greece in front of 95,103 spectators at the MCG in Melbourne, which he regards as his greatest national team moment. He has also represented his country at the 2000 Olympics.

Skoko had been named in the Australian side for a friendly match against Argentina on September 11 2007, and stated that this will be a home farewell, retiring from national duty after the match.^[1] Skoko ended his international career 51 minutes into the match when he was replaced by Grosseto and Inter co-owned midfielder, Carl Valeri.

References

^ "Skoko Will Quit 'Roos At MCG", FourFourTwo Australia, 2007-08-31. Retrieved on 2007-08-31.

External links

v • d • e

Wigan Athletic F.C. – current squad

1 Kirkland • 2 Taylor • 3 Edman • 5 Palacios • 6 Sibierski • 8 Kilbane • 9 Heskey • 10 Koumas • 11 Brown • 12 Pollitt • 14 King • 15 Aghahowa • 16 Valencia • 17 Boyce • 18 Scharner • 19 Bramble • 20 Olembé • 21 Cywka • 23 Bent • 24 Skoko • 25 Melchiot • 26 Bouaouzan • 27 Kupisz • 28 Moore • 29 Montrose • 30 Saunders • 31 Figueroa • 32 Hagen • Manager: Bruce

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