West Ham United has had many players walk through the doors of Upton Park. Amongst those name is none other than Stan Lazaridis, the question is what has happened to the player that showed such promise as a youngster back in the early 90s.
Lazaridis was one of the most sought after prospects in Australian League football. Right from a young age he proved to be gifted with a terrific left foot, as well a pace that put fear in many of the opposition.
After spending four years playing in Australia for both Floreat Athena and West Adelaide, respectively, West Ham United manager at the time’ Harry Redknapp decided to sign the player in a £300,000 deal.
This signing failed to live up to the hype that was boasted about prior to the transfer, however that’s not to say he was a complete failure as he managed to show glimpses of his talent, just not at a consistent level. His strongest period at the club came in the 1997-98 season, where he managed to score 2 goals in 35 appearances. Lazaridis went on to spend four years at Upton Park tallying just 87 appearances and scoring 3 goals, as his career was constantly plagued by injuries.
Despite his lacklustre time at West Ham, he went on to have more success at Birmingham City whom he signed for in a £1.7million deal. He managed to help guide the side to the Premier League, as well as notch up just over 200 appearances for the side in seven years.
Birmingham City proved to be the high point of his career, as after the 2005-06 season he found himself surplus the requirements, resulting in the decision to finish his career back in Australia with Perth Glory.
His return to the Australian League proved to be a dim comparison to his first outing in the league as a promising youngster, as his career hit an all time low after he failed a drug test, testing positive for Anti-androgen Finasteride. This resulted in a series of events ending with Lazaridis deciding to retire in 2008.
Like many other players such as Ryan Giggs (most recently), Gary Neville, Gus Poyet, Gianfranco Zola and many others, he can’t seem to pull himself away from the sport. Since his retirement, he has got involved in grass root football in Australia, taking the route of becoming a football coach.
As a coach, Lazaridis is excited by the chance to help guide the next generations into the top flight of football and live his dream of still playing the sport through them and their success. Depending on his credentials who knows, maybe we might just see him amongst the staff at the Olympic Stadium, joined by Alan Devonshire and Paolo Di Canio…well we can dream can’t we?
Follow me on Twitter @JimboWHUFC77
Absolute bargin at 300k excellant delivery on him got a profit on him aswell and that goal against newcastle was class even if it was a fluke.defantly worse players who played in his posistion at whu.a typical harry of old buy