User:Huligan0/Scott Chipperfield

Scott Chipperfield
Personal information
Full name	Scott Kenneth Chipperfield
Date of birth	30 December 1975 (age 48)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Left Back / Left Winger
Team information
Current team	Basel
Number	11
Youth career
	Bellambi Rosellas
	Tarrawanna
	Fernhill
Senior career*
Years	Team
1996–2001	Wollongong City
2001–	Basel
International career‡
1998–2010	Australia
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 24:00, 20 April 2011 (UTC); ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 24:00, 12 December 2010 (UTC)

Scott Kenneth Chipperfield (born 30 December 1975 in Sydney,^[2] New South Wales) is an Australian international football (soccer) player who currently plays as a midfielder for FC Basel in the Swiss Super League.

Personal life[edit]

Chipperfield was born to Kenneth and Dale Chipperfield in Sydney, New South Wales. He is of English descent and holds dual Australian-Swiss citizenship, having lived in Switzerland since signing for FC Basel in 2001. He has said that he would be willing to return to Wollongong to play in the future, should a bid to gain a Wollongong based team in the A-League be successful.^[3] As a boy, Chipperfield supported Liverpool. During his playing days at Wollongong he worked as a School Bus driver part time.^[4]

Club career[edit]

Wollongong Wolves[edit]

Chipperfield began his professional career at Wollongong Wolves in 1996 and was a vital member of the team that won the National Soccer League twice in a row, in 2000 and 2001, and the Oceania Club Championship in 2001. He scored the winning goal in the final of the Oceania Club Championship, as Wollongong Wolves defeated nu-Vanatu side Tafea F.C. 1–0. He twice won the Johnny Warren Medal for the most outstanding player in the Australian Domestic Season and started to gain some interest from European clubs. He had an unsuccessful trial at English Premier League side Bolton Wanderers in Winter 2000

FC Basel[edit]

In the Summer of 2001 Chipperfield joined Swiss Super League club FC Basel. He helped Basel win the league title (their first in 22 years) and the Swiss Cup in his first season in Switzerland. The following season, he was an important member of the team as Basel reached the Second Group Stage of the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League, notching up wins against MŠK Žilina, Celtic, Spartak Moscow, Deportivo de La Coruña and Juventus on the way. In 2003 he won his second gold medal in the Swiss Cup. In the 2004 and 2005 seasons he won his second and third League Championship titles with the club.

At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Chipperfield played an integral role in the Australian midfield and defence, he was considered to be one of Australia's best players at the tournament. Therefore he was subject to an unsuccessful bid by Charlton Athletic to obtain his services. But in July 2006 FC Basel announced that he had signed a three-year contract extension. At the end of this season Chipperfield played in the Cup Final in the Stade de Suisse and he recevied his third Cup Medal as Basel beat FC Luzern 1:0.

Chipperfield won the national Double for the second time in 2008, it was his fourth Cup titel and his fourth League titel. As Basel qualified for the UEFA Champions League, after a six-year absence, in 2008, Chipperfield was one of only three survivors of the squad that competed in the competition in 2003, the other two being Ivan Ergić and Benjamin Huggel. On 13 September 2008, he came on as a substitute for Orhan Mustafi during Basel's 2–0 defeat of FC Lucerne at St. Jakob-Park, to make his 200th league appearance for Basel. He also scored the second goal of the match. In January 2009, he was set to sign for Hertha BSC Berlin of the German Bundesliga, but the move fell through on the advice of medical staff.^[5]

At the end of the 2009–10 season and 2009–10 Cup campaign Chipperfield achieved his third Double with the club. In April 2011 the club announced a further one-year contract extension.^[6] To date he has played 367 competition games for the club, scoring 83 goals. He is Basel all time record holder of titels with the club.

International career[edit]

Chipperfield played his debut game for Australia in the Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane as a substitute during the 3:1 win against Fiji on 25 September in the 1998 Oceania Nations Cup. He scored his first goal for the national team in the game against the Cook Islands just three days later, it was the eleventh goal of the game as Australia won 16:0.

He is perhaps best known in Australia for his loyal and somewhat unexpected appearance at the 2002 OFC Nations Cup in New Zealand, a tournament which was marred by the financial turmoil of the then Soccer Australia. The non-existent financial contribution meant that the Australian players had to pay their own way to get to New Zealand. Chipperfield became the only one of Australia's large European contingent to answer the call and perform for his country in their time of need.

Chipperfield was selected to represent Australia at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, and was part of the team that successfully defeated Uruguay in a playoff in November 2005 to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Germany.

On October 12, 2009, Chipperfield announced his intention to retire from the national team immediately after the 2010 World Cup.^[7] After the final group game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup against Serbia, which Australia won 2–1, Chipperfield announced his retirement from international football.^[8]