Brendon Santalab

Brendon Santalab
Santalab with Western Sydney Wanderers in 2013
Personal information
Full name Brendon James Santalab
Date of birth (1982-09-09) 9 September 1982
Place of birth Wollongong
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current team
 Perth Glory
Youth career
Unanderra Hearts
South Coast United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2000–2001 Parramatta Power 8 (1)
2001–2003 Sydney United 28 (7)
2003 Geylang United 22 (23)
2003–2004 Sydney United 14 (5)
2004–2005 Oostende 22 (3)
2005–2006 Sint-Truiden 9 (0)
2006–2007 → Újpest FC (loan) 0 (0)
2007–2009 Sydney FC 23 (4)
2009 North Queensland Fury 0 (0)
2009–2011 Chengdu Blades 40 (18)
2012–2013 Chongqing Lifan 35 (15)
2013–2018 Western Sydney Wanderers 97 (35)
2018– Perth Glory 0 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19 June 2018

Brendon James Santalab (Croatian: Šantalab; born 9 September 1982) is an Australian professional football player who plays as a striker for A-League club Perth Glory. Outside of football, Brendon is the Co-Founder and Director of My Game Guru. The world’s first Grassroots sports tracking app for planning and locating sports games.

Brendon Santalab #11 Western Sydney Wanderers

Club career

He originally started out as an apprentice at Parramatta Power before moving to Sydney United under the tutelage of Branko Culina. At the end of the 2003–04 National Soccer League season, he moved to K.V. Oostende in the Belgian First Division. After a brief stint, he moved to another Belgian First Division club, K.Sint Truidense V.V. before moving to Hungary for a six-month period with Újpest FC. On 23 June 2007, Santalab was signed by A-League club Sydney FC on a two-year contract, thus reuniting him with Branko Culina.

Santalab made 23 appearances for Sydney FC between 2007 and 2009, scoring four goals. During a game against Adelaide United, Santalab scored a goal from outside the box, that curled into the top corner – a goal that was later ruled the 2007–08 season A-League goal of the year.[2] He scored another goal against Adelaide in the 2008–09 season at the Sydney Football Stadium, when he took a shot from 35 metres out, that slammed into the top corner. Sydney won the match 3–0. His fourth goal came during Sydney's 2–1 upset loss against Perth Glory.

On 14 November 2008, it was announced that Santalab had signed a two-year contract with then-new A-League side the North Queensland Fury for the 2009–10 season. It was announced by North Queensland, that Chinese Super League club Chengdu Blades may make an offer to him, before the start of the season.[3] North Queensland accepted an offer from Chengdu on 21 July.[4] He scored 9 goals during his 12 appearances with the Chengdu Blades.

In 2012, Santalab signed with Chongqing Lifan for one season before signing with the A-League Western Sydney Wanderers. [5]

Santalab scored his first goal for Western Sydney Wanderers in the 7th round of the 2013–14 A-League season, losing to Brisbane Roar 3–1 at Suncorp Stadium.

On 14 May 2014, in the Asian Champions League game against Sanfrecce Hiroshima with 5 minutes to go, Santalab scored the equalising goal that sent Western Sydney Wanderers FC into the quarter finals of the AFC Champions League.[6]

In the 16th round of the 2014–15 A-League season during a home game at Penrith Stadium against Wellington Phoenix, Santalab scored the second goal in a 2–0 win for his first of the season.

During Santalab's five seasons with the Western Sydney Wanderers he was awarded the Western Sydney Wanderers Player of the Year in the 2016/17 and received two of the Club's Golden Boot Awards in 2015/16 and 2016/17. He is also the Western Sydney Wanderers highest goal scorer of all time.

In June 2018, Santalab signed a one-year deal with Perth Glory. [7]

Honours

Club

Western Sydney Wanderers

Individual

References

  1. ↑ "Brendon Santalab". wswanderersfc.com.au. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  2. ↑ Prichard, Greg (28 February 2008). "Loophole to shut as Griffiths nets awards". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  3. ↑ David Williams' coincides with Brendon Santalab's likely departure
  4. ↑ North Queensland’s Santalab signs with Chengdu Blades
  5. ↑ BRENDON SANTALAB JOINS WANDERERS Archived 6 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Philip Micallef (14 May 2014). "Wanderers reach ACL quarter-finals". The World Game. SBS. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  7. ↑ "Brendon Santalab to Perth Glory: Club legend moves on after Wanderers snub". Fox Sports. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
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