Craig Moore

Craig Moore

Moore in 2008 playing for Queensland Roar
Personal information
Full name	Craig Andrew Moore
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Centre Back (Retired)
Youth career
1991	North Star
1992–1993	AIS
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1994–1998	Rangers	73	(4)
1998–1999	Crystal Palace	23	(3)
1999–2005	Rangers	102	(10)
2005	Borussia Mönchengladbach	13	(1)
2005–2007	Newcastle United	31	(0)
2007–2009	Brisbane Roar	62	(3)
2010	Kavala	10	(1)
International career‡
1991	Australia U-17	8	(0)
1992–1993	Australia U-20	24	(0)
1996	Australia U-23	11	(1)
1995–2010	Australia	52	(3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 14:07, 5 June 2010 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17:45, 25 June 2010 (UTC)

Craig Andrew Moore (born 12 December 1975 in Canterbury, New South Wales), is a retired Australian soccer defender.

Moore is best known for his two spells with Scottish Premier Division / Premier League club Rangers F.C.. Having graduated through their youth system, he made 252 appearances for the Glasgow based club from 1993 to 2005, punctuated with a season in England with Crystal Palace in the 1998–99 First Division. In his time at Rangers he became team captain and won numerous domestic league and cup honours, including making 44 appearances and scoring 4 goals in their 2002–03 Treble-winning season.

After leaving Rangers on a free transfer in January 2005, Moore spent a half-season at German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach, before moving to English Premier League side Newcastle United. Released by Newcastle after an injury hit two seasons, Moore moved to his hometown club Queensland Roar (later renamed Brisbane Roar) in the Australian A-League, as their captain and Marquee player. After three seasons with the Roar, in January 2010 Moore moved to Greek Super League side AO Kavala, only to leave in March.

In international football, Moore has made over 50 appearances for the Australia national team (the Socceroos), including at the 2006 and 2010 World Cups in Germany and South Africa. Having made his debut in 1995, he has been Australian team captain a number of times.

Club career

Rangers

Upon leaving the Australian Institute of Sport, Moore joined Rangers youth system and went on to became an important player at the centre of Rangers defence up until 2004 over two spells.

Moore spent most of the 1998–99 season at Crystal Palace; despite being regarded as a success in London as the Eagles' fought relegation, he returned to Rangers after the South London club defaulted on transfer payments.

Moore was the captain of the "Olyroos", the Australian Olympic Football Team at the 2004 Olympics at Athens, Greece, when they managed to reach the quarter-finals. However, his involvement angered Rangers manager Alex McLeish as it forced him to miss the start of the Scottish league season. As a result Moore was stripped of the club captaincy and was forced to the fringes of the team.

Moore won twelve major honours with Rangers including five league championships and a domestic treble in 2003.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

Moore was given a free transfer and joined Borussia Mönchengladbach on 3 January 2005, where he teamed up with former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat. When Advocaat was sacked after a short time in charge, Moore left the German club after falling out with the club management.

Newcastle United

On 30 July 2005 he signed a two year deal at Newcastle United to play for the first time in the English Premier League.

Moore made his competitive Newcastle United debut on 22 March 2006 against Chelsea in the FA Cup quarter-final, becoming the first Australian to play for the magpies. His actual first game came at home to Yeading in which he scored one of five goals. Injuries ruined Moore's Newcastle career, and he only made 8 premiership appearances in the 2005-06 season.

Moore was then injured in November 2006 and was ruled out for several months. He returned but struggled to get back into the team, with Peter Ramage, Steven Taylor, and Titus Bramble keeping him out. After Titus Bramble's dip in form, Moore returned to the first team. Moore made 17 premiership appearances in the 2006-07 season.

On 16 May 2007 it was announced that Moore's contract would not be renewed, and he was released by the club. He made 31 appearances for Newcastle.

Brisbane Roar

It was rumoured on 25 July 2007 that Moore had signed with Queensland Roar (now Brisbane Roar) in his native home state of Queensland, Australia, to become the Roar's Marquee signing for the 2007/2008 Hyundai A-League Season and the 2008-2009 season. This was confirmed with an announcement by Queensland and Moore on 25 July 2007 with Moore signing to be Queensland's marquee player for 2 years.

Moore's career with the Roar did not start well. He was sent off in the 69th minute in the first game of the season against Adelaide United for a second yellow card. Although Queensland were trailing at the time 2-1 came back to level the score at 2-2 and hold on for a draw. He scored his first goal for the Roar in their 2008–09 season round four clash with Perth Glory. Queensland went on to win 3-0.

In December 2008, Craig was fined for lodging bets totalling $600 on two matches involving A-League teams with betting exchange Betfair. These matches did not include his own side, and because of this, it was deemed a fine was a satisfactory punishment, with the Roar labelling it as an 'honest mistake'.

Moore left the Roar in December 2009, after falling out with the coach Ange Postecoglou and wanting a move to Europe to increase his chances of 2010 World Cup selection.

AO Kavala

In January 2010 he moved to Greek side AO Kavala on an eighteen month contract. He debuted for Kavala on 10 January 2010 in a 1-0 loss against Asteras Tripolis.

It was reported on 31 March 2010 that his contract with Kavala had been terminated after an off-field incident. Moore later denied there had been an off-field incident, stating he had left over fears that he could experience burnout or serious injury, endangering his 2010 World Cup place, had he stayed at the Greek side, having played 15 games in all, 13 of those in just five weeks, on top of his games at the Roar earlier in the season.

Sydney United

Moore put on the famous red jersey of Sydney United in a farewell testimonial for former Socceroos and AC Milan goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac in July 2010 against Newcastle Jets.

Sinar Dimaja Mai Sarah FC

On August 22, 2010 Moore signed a 2 year contract with Malaysian 3rd Division side Sinar Dimaja Mai Sarah FC of Penang for a transfer fee of 2,220 Malaysia Ringgits.

International career

Moore represented the Socceroos in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He scored a penalty kick against Croatia in the 39th minute of the game, enabling Australia to progress to the second round. As of 2008, he has made 40 appearances for Australia, scoring three goals. Moore announced his international retirement on 6 February 2008 after Australia's 3-0 win over Qatar in their first FIFA World Cup Qualifier at Telstra Dome. Craig has recently put his hand up for International call ups in September 2008. On 1 October 2008, Australian coach Pim Verbeek announced that Moore was part of the 35 man squad for the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers.

Moore retired from international football after the 2010 World Cup.

International goals

Scores and results list Australia's goal tally first.

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	23 February 2000	Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	3-0	Won	Friendly
2.	13 November 2001	Melbourne, Australia	France	1-1	Draw	Friendly
3.	22 June 2006	Stuttgart, Germany	Croatia	2-2	Draw	2006 FIFA World Cup

Personal life

In November 2008, Moore was diagnosed with, and underwent surgery for, testicular cancer. Six weeks later, he was given the all-clear to resume his playing career.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1993-94||rowspan="6"|Rangers||rowspan="5"|Premier Division||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||21||2||2||0||1||1||4||0||27||3 |- |1995-96||11||1||1||0||1||0||2||0||15||1 |- |1996-97||23||1||2||0||3||0||4||0||32||1 |- |1997-98||10||0||1||0||2||0||2||1||15||1 |- |1998-99||Premier League||8||1||0||0||2||0||1|||0||11||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1998-99||Crystal Palace||First Division||23||3||1||0||||||||||24||3 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999-00||rowspan="6"|Rangers||rowspan="6"|Premier League||22||1||3||1||2||0||6||0||35||2 |- |2000-01||5||0||0||0||0||0||2||0||7||0 |- |2001-02||18||3||2||0||1||0||5||1||28||4 |- |2002-03||35||3||4||1||3||0||7||0||49||4 |- |2003-04||17||2||4||0||1||0||5||0||27||2 |- |2004-05||3||0||1||0||1||0||4||0||9||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||Borussia Mönchengladbach||Bundesliga||13||1||1||0||||||||||14||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2005-06||rowspan="2"|Newcastle United||rowspan="2"|Premier League||9||0||||||||||||||8||0 |- |2006-07||17||0||1||0||1||0||4||0||23||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2007-08||rowspan="3"|Queensland Roar||rowspan="3"|A-League||21||0||2||0||||||||||23||0 |- |2008-09||21||2||3||1||||||||||24||3 |- |2009-10||15||1||-||-||||||||||15||1 Template:Football player statistics 3174||14||20||0||16||0||42||0||252||14 Template:Football player statistics 448||3||2||0||1||0||4||0||55||3 Template:Football player statistics 413||1||1||0||||||||||14||1 Template:Football player statistics 457||3||5||1||||||||||62||4 Template:Football player statistics 5293||21||28||1||17||0||46||0||424||22 |}

Honours

With Rangers F.C.:

• SPL Championship (5): 1994–1995, 1995–1996, 1996–1997, 1999–2000, 2002–2003
• Scottish Cup (4): 1995–1996, 1999–2000, 2001–2002, 2002–2003
• Scottish League Cup (3): 1996–1997, 2001–2002, 2002–2003

Personal Honours:

• Queensland Roar Gary Wilkins Medal: 2007-2008, 2008-2009
• Queensland Roar Player's Player of the Year: 2007-2008, 2008-2009
• Queensland Roar Member's Player of the Year: 2008-2009

External links

• Oz Football profile
• Craig Moore at Soccerbase