Mark Schwarzer

Mark Schwarzer

Personal information
Full name	Mark Schwarzer
Date of birth	6 October 1972 (1972-10-06) (age 38)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 1⁄2 in) [1]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Fulham
Number	1
Youth career
	Colo Cougars
	Penrith
	Blacktown Association
	Marconi Stallions
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1990–1994	Marconi Stallions	58	(0)
1994–1995	Dynamo Dresden	2	(0)
1995–1996	Kaiserslautern	4	(0)
1996–1997	Bradford City	13	(0)
1997–2008	Middlesbrough	367	(0)
2008–	Fulham	75	(0)
National team‡
1989	Australia U17	6	(0)
1990–1991	Australia U20	8	(0)
1993–	Australia[2]	80	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:12, 13 June 2010 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:00, 4 September 2010 (UTC+1)

Mark Schwarzer, OAM (born 6 October 1972) is an Australian association footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. He currently plays for English Premier League club Fulham. He rose to prominence during his time at North-East England football club Middlesbrough. He represents Australia at international level, and was selected for both the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

Schwarzer has worn the same pair of shin pads since he started his professional career at the age of 19 with Marconi Stallions, in the National Soccer League.^[3] He left the Sydney-based club to play in Germany with Dynamo Dresden and FC Kaiserslautern. He then traveled to England to play for Bradford City, where he eventually joined Middlesbrough in February 1997.^[4]

Middlesbrough

Schwarzer in 2006.

Schwarzer made his debut for Middlesbrough against Stockport County in the League Cup semi-finals. He played in the final against Leicester City, a 1–1 draw, but injury kept him out of the replay, which Middlesbrough lost. He was part of the side, however, who beat Bolton Wanderers to win the 2004 League Cup Final, producing a superb display having recovered after his mistake in letting in a soft shot.

Perhaps his most important save for Middlesbrough came in the last match of the 2004–05 season against Manchester City, saving a Robbie Fowler penalty in stoppage time to preserve a 1–1 draw. The draw was sufficient to put Middlesbrough in seventh in the final league table and ensure qualification for the UEFA Cup. Had Fowler converted the penalty, Man City would have qualified for the UEFA Cup at Middlesbrough's expense.

Schwarzer was granted a transfer request by Middlesbrough late in 2005 and sought to join a new club, but he withdrew his request on 20 January 2006, and rejoined the team. A fractured cheekbone sustained against West Ham United, however, looked like it had ruled Schwarzer out for the rest of the season, but he returned for the UEFA Cup final against Sevilla FC, albeit playing with a protective mask. When he played in Middlesbrough's 1–0 victory over Portsmouth on 29 December 2007, he became the Premier League's longest-serving foreigner at one club beating Dennis Bergkamp's record of 315 games.^[5]

Fulham

Mark Schwarzer in Fulham F.C.

Schwarzer's contract with Middlesbrough expired in June 2008, and although he was offered a new contract,^[6] manager Gareth Southgate had to plan a future with a new goalkeeper, as on 21 May 2008, Schwarzer signed a two-year deal at Fulham, ending an 11-year association with the Teesside club.^[7] Schwarzer revealed in an interview with The World Game that he had received offers from Bayern Munich and Juventus but declined their offers because they could not guarantee him the position as the number-one keeper.^[8]

Schwarzer made his Fulham debut in a 2–1 defeat to newly-promoted Premier League side Hull City, but he followed up by keeping a clean sheet in his next match in a 1–0 win at home to Arsenal and played every minute of the 2008–09 season. He kept ten clean sheets during the 2008–09 season in all competitions.

Schwarzer's contribution was phenomenal as his performances lead Fulham to a high seventh place finish and a place in Europe the next season, a massive improvement on Fulham's 17th place finish just a season before. Notable scalps included wins over Arsenal, Manchester United and a draw with Chelsea largely due to many spectacular saves from Schwarzer. He received the Fulham Player of the Year 2008–09 in his first year at the club. He was also named Barclays Premier League's Player of the Month for February 2010, in which he only conceded one goal in his team's two wins and two draws that month, making him the first Australian to do so.

He played an important role in Fulham reaching the Europa League Final in 2010, but Schwarzer lost his second European final with a narrow defeat to Atlético Madrid of Spain.

After impressive displays in 2009-2010 season Schwarzer caught the eye of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger who stated that Arsenal are in the market for a new keeper after seeing the form of Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski come into questioning. It has been reported that a bid of around £3.5m has been made for Schwarzer, but was rejected by Fulham^[9]. It was reported on 11 August 2010 that Schwarzer had handed in a transfer request, paving a way for his move to Arsenal to be complete, however Fulham issued a statement denying these reports^[10]. On 31 August 2010, it was reported that Arsenal had made a last ditch £4million bid to bring Schwarzer to the Emirates Stadium before the transfer window closes, because of injury to stockdale and no replacement was found the deal could not be reached.^[11]

Career statistics

Club^[12]

Statistics correct as of matches played 12 April 2010

International career

Schwarzer made his international debut for Australia against Canada in Edmonton in a 1994 World Cup qualifier. He came on as a substitute for Milan Blagojevic after first-choice Robert Zabica was sent off 17 minutes into the match.^[13] In the return leg in Sydney, he covered himself in glory when he saved two penalties to send Australia to the final phase of qualifying against Argentina. Schwarzer did not play in these matches, and Australia were defeated 2–1 on aggregate.

He was instrumental in Australia's qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in the play-off against Uruguay. After Uruguay won the first leg 1–0 in Montevideo, Australia won 1–0 in Sydney. In the penalty shootout, Schwarzer saved two penalties to see Australia victorious 4–2.

At the World Cup Finals, he played the first two games in Australia's group matches, conceding a controversial goal against Japan and two goals against Brazil. In the third match, he was replaced by Željko Kalac, but after Kalac's disappointing performance, he was reinstated for the Round of 16 match against Italy.

Even though he predicted the direction of the penalty kick, he was unable to save the penalty in the second round of the World Cup against Italy, which was scored by Francesco Totti in injury time and sent Australia out of the World Cup.

A team photo of the Colo Cougars in which Schwarzer is the Keeper

After the World Cup in 2006, he vowed to return for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He played in all of Australia's matches in the 2007 Asian Cup, although he performed admirably against Oman in the 1–1 draw he made an error which led to a goal in the 3–1 loss to Iraq and could not match Japanese goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi during the penalty shootout, which saw the Socceroos crash out of the competition in their debut at the tournament. Schwarzer said that the penalty shootout in the Asian Cup quarter-finals was the first penalty shootout in his career that he had ever lost.^[14]

Schwarzer saved an 89th minute Shao Jiayi penalty against China in Australia's 0–0 draw in the 2010 World Cup qualifier in March 2008, continuing his record of stopping penalty kicks.^[15] He received his second yellow card of the tournament against Qatar in Doha, in which Australia were 3–1 winners. He also missed Australia's second leg game against the Chinese in Sydney. He played every minute for the Socceroos in round two of qualification, conceding only one goal, which was in the final game against Japan.

Schwarzer made several vital saves to secure Australia's Asian Cup Qualifier 2–1 come back win over Oman in Muscat after conceding from his penalty save rebound.

He was the country's first choice keeper for all three matches of the Group Stage in the 2010 World Cup, a group composed of Australia, Germany, Ghana, and Serbia. In the first match, Australia were crushed 4–0 by the Germans, but recovered with a 1–1 draw against Ghana. In the final match, Australia beat Serbia 2–1, thus finishing third in the group with four points, just missing qualification to the Round of 16 on goal difference with Ghana.

Personal life

Schwarzer was born in North Richmond, a semi-rural suburb in North-Western Sydney, and attended Richmond North Public School and Colo High School. He played for the local soccer (football) club the Colo Cougars. His parents Hans-Joachim and Doris emigrated to Australia from Germany in 1968.^[16] He speaks English, Spanish, and German. Schwarzer and his wife Paloma have two children; a son, Julian, and a daughter, Amaya. In 2009, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia.^[17]

Honours

Club

Middlesbrough

• Football League Cup (1): 2003-04
• UEFA Cup Runner-up: 2005-06
• Football League Cup Runner-up: 1996-97, 1997-98

Fulham

• UEFA Europa League Runner-up: 2009-10

International

Australia

• OFC Nations Cup (1): 2004

Individual

• Fulham F.C. Player of The Year (1): 2008-09
• FFA Australian Football Awards: Footballer of the Year 2009
• Premier League Player of the Month (1): February 2010

References

External links

• Fulham profile
• FFA – Socceroo profile
• OzFootball profile
• FIFA profile
• Mark Schwarzer career stats at Soccerbase
• Career Details at National Football Teams
• Migration Heritage Centre feature on Schwarzer family

Australia Squads Australia squad – 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Third Place 1 Schwarzer • 2 Muscat • 3 Moore • 4 Okon • 5 T. Vidmar • 6 Popovic • 7 Skoko • 8 Lazaridis • 9 Aloisi • 10 Emerton • 11 Zdrilic • 12 Bolton • 13 Bresciano • 14 Murphy • 15 Foxe • 16 Horvat • 17 Corica • 18 Chipperfield • 19 A. Vidmar • 20 Zane • 21 Thompson • 22 Sterjovski • 23 Jurić • Coach: Farina Australia squad – 2004 OFC Oceania Nations Cup Winners (4th Title)  Elrich •  Milicic •  Thompson •  Emerton •  Kewell •  McKain •  Skoko •  Muscat •  Neill •  Wilkshire •  Schwarzer •  Sterjovski •  Colosimo •  Popovic •  T. Vidmar •  Grella •  Kalac •  North •  J. Aloisi •  Cahill •  Brosque •  Kisnorbo •  Tarka •  Vieri •  Madaschi •  Bresciano •  Laybutt • Coach: Farina Australia squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Muscat • 3 Moore • 4 Neill • 5 T. Vidmar • 6 Popovic • 7 Emerton • 8 Skoko • 9 Viduka • 10 Cahill • 11 Chipperfield • 12 Petkovic • 13 Wilkshire • 14 Colosimo • 15 Aloisi • 16 Zdrilic • 17 McKain • 18 Kalac • 19 Čulina • 20 Miličević • 21 Elrich • 22 Thompson • 23 Sterjovski • Coach: Farina Australia squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Moore • 4 Cahill • 5 Culina • 6 Popovic • 7 Emerton • 8 Skoko • 9 Viduka (c) • 10 Kewell • 11 Lazaridis • 12 Čović • 13 Grella • 14 Chipperfield • 15 Aloisi • 16 Beauchamp • 17 Thompson • 18 Kalac • 19 Kennedy • 20 Wilkshire • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Hiddink Australia squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Kisnorbo • 4 Cahill • 5 Culina • 6 Beauchamp • 7 Emerton • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Thompson • 12 Jones • 13 Grella • 14 Holman • 15 Aloisi • 16 Thwaite • 17 Valeri • 18 Petkovic • 19 Carle • 20 Carney • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Arnold Australia squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill (c) • 3 Moore • 4 Cahill • 5 Culina • 6 Beauchamp • 7 Emerton • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Kennedy • 10 Kewell • 11 Chipperfield • 12 Federici • 13 Grella • 14 Holman • 15 Jedinak • 16 Valeri • 17 Rukavytsya • 18 Galeković • 19 Garcia • 20 Milligan • 21 Carney • 22 Vidošić • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Verbeek