Jade North

Jade North
Personal information
Full name	Jade Bronson North
Height	1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Centre Back, Right Back
Team information
Current team	Newcastle Jets
Number	3
	‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 10:53, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

Jade Bronson North (born January 7, 1982 in Taree, New South Wales, Australia) is an Indigenous Australian football (soccer) player. He currently plays as a centre full back for the Australian A-League club Newcastle United Jets FC. He is also a member of the Australian national football team.

Club career

He lived in New Zealand until the age of 11, then moved back to Australia, taking up residence in the suburb of Sunnybank in Brisbane, with his brother Brook North and parents. He attended Sunnybank High School until he was offered a place with the AIS in Canberra at the age of 15, then later joined the Brisbane Strikers as one of the youngest players to join the National Soccer League and then later moving to the Perth Glory.

North was named as the captain of the Jets for the 2007-08 season following the departure of Paul Okon.^[1]

On 9 June 2008, Australian newspapers suggested that North was due to sign with Belgian club, Bruges, or with Armenian club FC MIKA. However any rumours of offers proved to purely speculative, with North admitting no concrete offers had materialised and that he would be seeing out the last year of his contract with the Jets.^[2]

International career

North's breakthrough came when he played every game of Australia's runner's up side at the FIFA U-17 World Championship 1999 where his country lost the final to Brazil on penalties. He was also a member of Australia's quarter final effort at the Olympic Games in Athens five years later.

In 2008, prior to the 2010 World Cup Qualifier against China, North became the first ever Aboriginal Socceroos captain for the 0-0 Draw with Singapore.