About Clayton Zane

Clayton Zane is a former Socceroo, Olyroo and Young Socceroo player who was born and raised in Newcastle.

As a 21 year old player he took the huge step to chase his footballing dream and play soccer in Europe. As a Liverpool supporter he aspired to follow in the path of his childhood hero, Craig Johnston.

Having played for both the Newcastle Breakers youth and senior squads, he moved to Sydney with Northern Spirit. In 1999 he was sold to Champions League club Molde FK for the second highest fee for an Australian player at that time, second to Zjelko Kalac.

Clayton played one season for Molde and in the same year represented the Olyroos with Lucas Neill, Brett Emerton and Mark Viduka at the Sydney Olympics. He was sold in 2001 to Lillestrom. In the 2001 season Clayton completed his best season ever finishing with the golden boot, player of the season, and best attacker in Norway’s top league. It was also this year that Clayton competed in the Confederations Cup for Australia, scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 win over France, the reigining World and European champions.

He finished the year narrowly missing out to Uruguay for a place in the 2002 World Cup.

At the end of 2002, Clayton was sold for a club record 2 million euros to Anderlecht, the former European Champions. In the four years with Anderlecht the club won the Championship three times and qualified for the Champions League (3 times) and European Cup (once). He was seriously injured in his left knee and was forced to retire at the age of 29 having had several setbacks on his road to recovery.

Since his retiremement, Clayton has resided in Chelsea (London) and has worked coaching the Queen Park Rangers youth sides (Under 16’s). He has worked to secure his coaching badges and recently finished the prestigious UEFA ‘A’ badge which is considered the top coaching qualification in Europe. He has also helped to oversee the development of the junior teams at QPR (Under 9-16’s).

He has also worked as Head of Sport for the prestigious Knightsbridge School which is considered one of London’s top private schools – www.knightsbridgeschool.org

In 2010 he finished his Masters in ‘International Sport Management’ at the Southern Cross University, Australia.

Clubs: Anderlecht, Lillestrom SK, Molde FK, Northern Spirit, Newcastle Breakers, Adamstown Rosebuds, Cessnock, Australs, Raymond Terrace, Plattsburgh Maryland

National teams: Young Socceroos and Olyroos, Socceroos (14 caps, 2 other)