Nicholas Alberto "Nicky" Carle (born November 23, 1981 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian football (soccer) player of Chilean origin. He currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Genclerbirliği S.K..
Futsal has been a huge part of Carles footballing development and can be seen in the style of game he plays, as a junior Carle won 5 national futsal titles.
During his days as a teenage schoolboy, he played football for his high school, Patrician Brothers College, Fairfield. Even at this stage, Carle displayed much promise and potential as a footballer. His most notable football achievement at school level was helping his school win the much coveted Bill Turner Cup competition in 1996.
Professional Career
Began his career as a 15 year old at Sydney Olympic in the NSL. He had a brief stint at French club Troyes before returning to Australia with Marconi and then Newcastle in the newly-formed A-League. He starred for the Jets in the first two seasons of the A-League with his fancy footwork and exceptional close-control, and he became undoubtedly the favourite player of the Jets' fans.
In February 2007 Carle won the prestigious Johnny Warren Medal for the players' player of the year for his performance throughout the 2006/07 season, beating Melbourne Victory's Daniel Allsopp, Archie Thompson and Kevin Muscat. Carle also won the goal of the year award for his 70-metre run followed by a strike from 20 metres with the outside of his left boot, which proved to be the winning goal in the Round 10 clash against Adelaide United (Adelaide had only seconds earlier missed a penalty to win the match). Earlier in February Carle was named the A-League Player of the Year on popular Australian football site, pintculture.com. Carle won the site's Arok Award from Melbourne Victory player Kevin Muscat by one vote.
Carle's form for the Jets in the 2006-07 A-League season saw calls for him to be called back to the national team. Carle ended three years in exile from the national squad by coming on as a substitute against China in March, and also made an appearance against Uruguay in June. Following his time back in the national squad, Carle stated that he felt that to stake a claim for a starting spot in the Socceroos, players needed to play overseas, as the A-League did not provide enough games per season. Although he didn't say directly that he wanted to leave Newcastle, he said that offers from Europe would be tempting. He was linked with Fenerbahce before eventually being signed by Genclerbirliği. The fee is in the region of $650,000, with benefits filtering through to Newcastle should Carle be sold from the Turkish club. Genclerbirliği is the former club of Socceroo Josip Skoko.
International Career
Carle represented Australia at the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship, before earning his first senior cap against Venezuela in 2004. He came on as a substitute on the 84th minute replacing David Zdrilic. It was his only appearance in the national side for three years.
After missing out on selection in the Australian team for the Athens Olympics, Carle was only brought back in to the national team under coach Graham Arnold, after not featuring at all under Guus Hiddink and regularly missing selection under Frank Farina. Carle has made five senior appearances for the Socceroos, all of which have been as a substitute.
Carle was selected in the Australian squad for the 2007 AFC Asian Cup. He made an appearance as a subsititute during Australia's match against Japan, scoring in the penalty shoot out.
References
Other pages about Chilean Australians
-Andy Vargas -Chilean Australian -Chris Watson -Dion Valle -Hispanic Australian -Nick Carle -Peggy Antonio -Rodrigo Vargas
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Nick_Carle
