Tony Pezzano

NSL Career: Sydney City, Brisbane City, APIA, Wollongong City, Marconi 248 (0) / 1977 - 1993/94

Socceroos Career: 5 (0) B Internationals

Tony Pezzano had to bide his time in the early stages of his career before becoming the NSL's most successful keeper. After replacing the experienced keepers that he served as an understudy, Pezzano established himself as one of the toughest keepers to beat in the NSL during the 1980s. With 87 clean sheets in 248 NSL appearances, Pezzano was fifth on the all-time list and had the fourth-best games per clean sheet ratio of the keepers in the top 10.

Pezzano began his junior career in the Canterbury district with Canterbury-Marrickville where he played third grade at just 14 years of age for the NSW Division Two side. Pezzano spent another season at Marrickville, progressing to the second grade before leaving the club to join strong Division One side Eastern Suburbs Hakoah, one of the foundation clubs of the Phillips Soccer League.

Starting his first grade career as an understudy to national team keeper Todd Clarke, Pezzano quickly impressed Hakoah coach Gerry Chaldi and made his NSL debut at the age of 16, but made just three first team appearances in his first season as he competed for a the keeper role with Clarke, Alan Farley and mid-season signing Malcolm Haynes.

Pezzano was forced to bide his time at Hakoah over the next three seasons, making just 19 league appearances as Clarke's form made him one of the best keepers in Australia as he helped Hakoah to win back-to-back Play-Off Series before winning back-to-back NSL Championships.

Desperate for regular game time, Pezzano was loaned out to Brisbane City for the 1982 season where he made 18 league appearances before returning to Sydney City (formerly Hakoah). Upon his return Pezzano pushed his case to become City's number one keeper, earning more starts than Clarke during the season as City finished runners-up in the league to St George in the 1983 season. 

Over the next two seasons, Pezzano finally cemented his spot in the City line-up - keeping 20 clean sheets in 49 league appearances, earning five Socceroos B caps during 1984 and started in City's 1984 Northern Conference Final loss to Sydney Olympic and their 1985 NSL Grand Final loss to Brunswick. Pezzano joined APIA in 1986 season and remained with the club for five seasons, missing just eight league games during his time at the club as he helped the side win the first NSL Championship in 1987 and second NSL Cup the following season.

The experienced keeper moved to Wollongong where he started the 1990/91 season behind young keeper George Bouhoutsos, but managed to make more starts than his less experienced counterpart. Pezzano's position as Wollongong number one was short lived however, when promising young keeper John Filan joined the club for the 1991/92 season, relegating Pezzano to the reserves and helping the club qualify for the finals series for the first time since the 1988 season.

The experienced keeper moved to Marconi seeking more game time but ended up in the same situation, as a young Mark Schwarzer was named NSL Keeper of the Year after taking Pezzano's spot. Marconi went on to win the grand final with Schwarzer in goals, earning Pezzano a record-equalling fifth NSL Championship (shared with Gerry Gomez).

Pezzano made just a single appearance during the 1993/94 season before hanging up the boots at the age of 33. Following his playing career, Pezzano had stints as a head coach in the NSW Super League and goalkeeper coach in the NSL where he stepped in as Sydney United caretaker coach during the 2000/01 season.