Shannon Cole

Shannon Cole
	Cole training with Western Sydney Wanderers in 2013
Personal information
Full name	Shannon Cole
Date of birth	4 August 1984 (age 39)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s)	Defender, midfielder
Youth career
	APIA Leichhardt
	Dulwich Hill
	Rockdale City Suns
Senior career*
Years	Team
2005	Parramatta Eagles
2006	Waitakere United
2007–2008	Sydney Olympic
2008–2012	Sydney FC
2012–2017	Western Sydney Wanderers
2017–2018	Sydney United 58
2019	FC Arizona
International career
2010	Australia
Managerial career
2019–2021	FC Arizona (Under 23s)
2022–2023	Sydney United 58 (Under 18s)
2023–	Central Coast United FC
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Shannon Cole (born 4 August 1984) is a former professional

Central Coast United in NSW League Two.^[2]

Club career

Cole's early football career saw a series of stints with NSW state league clubs, in particular

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."^[3]

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.^[4]

Sydney FC

On 15 August 2008 he was signed by

Sydney Olympic.^[5] Chosen mainly because of his ability to play at left and right back or midfield.^[3]

On 23 August 2008, Cole scored a free kick against

Perth Glory

cemented his position in the 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.

In

Perth Glory to slide the ball past Tando Velaphi

in Round 15 then later did a spectacular acrobatic jump.

Western Sydney Wanderers FC

On 30 June 2012, it was officially announced he had joined the newly formed Western Sydney Wanderers club.^[6]

After being at the club since it was formed, Cole announced that he would leave after 5 years.^[7]

International career

On 1 October 2008 was called up from Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek for the Australia national football team for a training camp,^[8] he was not promoted for the 22 squad against Qatar. His second call was on 19 January 2009 against Indonesia^[9] and played 73 minutes in his debut.^[10]