Zeljko Kalac

Željko Kalac [ˈʒɛʎkɔ ˈkalats] (born December 16th, 1972) is an Australian football (soccer) goalkeeper, who currently plays for A.C. Milan in Italy's Serie A. He is nicknamed "Spider" thanks to his height (2.02m) and large armspan.

He is an Australian international, though he has spent many years as understudy to first Mark Bosnich, and more recently Mark Schwarzer. He has been selected as a member of Australia's

squad.

He joined Milan in the summer of 2005 on a free transfer, after his previous club A.C. Perugia was demoted to Serie C1 for financial troubles. Other clubs include Roda JC, Leicester City and Sydney United.

Despite only making three 1st team appearances at Leicester City, his final appearance was as a substitute in the 1996 Division One playoff final, coming on as a substitute during the final minute of extra-time. Being so big, Leicester manager Martin O'Neill believed that Kalac would be able to save penalties during the shootout. But then Steve Claridge scored with the last kick of the game, literally 20 seconds after Kalac had come onto the pitch, and the Foxes were promoted to the Premiership.

It wasn't until an ankle injury suffered by incumbent Dida in the first leg of the Champions League knockout stage against Bayern Munich that Kalac made his CL and Serie A debuts in a Milan uniform. He also played in the Coppa Italia tournament until Milan were eliminated by underdog Palermo on a disappointing 3-1 aggregate.