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John Filan
Personal information
Full name	John Richard Filan
Date of birth	8 February 1970 (1970-02-08) (age 39)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Sydney FC (Coach)
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989–1991 1991–1992 1992 1992–1993 1993–1995 1995 1995–1997 1997–2001 2001–2007 2006 2008	St. George Saints Wollongong Wolves St. George Saints Wollongong Wolves Cambridge United → Nottingham Forest (loan) Coventry City Blackburn Rovers Wigan Athletic → Doncaster Rovers (loan) Sydney FC Total	052 00(0) 023 00(0) 000 00(0) 006 00(0) 068 00(0) 000 00(0) 016 00(0) 064 00(0) 184 00(0) 003 00(0) 000 00(0) 416 00(0)
National team2
1991–1997	Australia	003 00(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 03:19, 31 August 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 03:19, 31 August 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

John Filan (born 8 February 1970 in Sydney) is an Australian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Club career

He played for St. George Saints and Wollongong Wolves in the old National Soccer League in Australia before moving to England to join Cambridge United in 1993. In 1995 he signed for Coventry City, then moved on to Blackburn Rovers in 1997.

He joined Wigan Athletic in December 2001 for £600,000. Prior to the start of Wigan's debut season in the Premier League he had missed only one match for the club but was injured at the start of the 2005–06 season with Wigan's new signing Mike Pollitt taking his place in the side. Filan, however signed a new contract which kept him at the club until 2007. Seeing out his contract with Wigan, he was released at the end of the season. Whilst at Wigan he appeared as a substitute in the 2006 Football League Cup Final when Pollitt had to come off early in the first half with an injury.

Filan returned to Australia in semi-retirement, resettling in his home town of Sydney. In August 2007 agreed terms with A-League side Sydney FC as backup to Clint Bolton,^[1] however the deal fell through citing outside issues.^[2]

Filan is currently employed with Sydney as their Goalkeeper Coach and briefly came out of retirement to provide goalkeeping cover during the 2008 season.

International career

Filan was a member of the Australian team that competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

As he has an Irish passport through his ancestry, he once sought to play international football for Ireland. However, FIFA ruled against it in February 1999 because he had played for the Australian Olympic team.^[3][4]

Honours

Blackburn Rovers

Football League First Division: Runner-up

2000–01

Wigan Athletic

Football League Second Division: Champion

2002–03

Football League Championship: Runner-up

2004–05

League Cup: Runner-up

2006

References

External links

• Sydney FC profile
• John Filan career stats at Soccerbase

Australia squad – 1992 Summer Olympics Fourth Place 1 Filan • 2 Blagojevic • 3 Longo • 4 Zelić • 5 Murphy • 6 Vidmar • 7 Gibson • 8 Okon • 9 Aramabasic • 10 Slifkas • 11 Markovski • 12 Mori • 13 Veart • 14 Refenes • 15 Popovic • 16 Seal • 17 Hasler • 18 Corica • 19 Maloney • 20 Bosnich • Coach: Thomson