Mark Burke

This article is about an English football (soccer) player. For the American Football player of the same name, see here.

Mark Burke

Personal information
Full name	Mark Stephen Burke
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder

Mark Stephen Burke (born 12 February 1969 in Solihull) is a English former footballer, who played for a number of clubs both in his homeland and in foreign leagues during the 1990s.

Career

Burke joined Aston Villa on schoolboy forms aged 14, and played for England Schoolboys, before signing professionally in February 1987. He made his senior debut in a 0-1 defeat to Everton on 18 April 1987, but managed only eight appearances for the club before joining Second Division Middlesbrough for £50,000 in December 1987.

His first season with Boro ended with promotion after the club defeated Chelsea in the promotion/relegation play-offs to claim a place in the top flight. However, his taste of First Division football was brief as the team slipped back down after a solitary season. By 1990, Burke was largely on the sidelines after falling out with manager Bruce Rioch.

After a spell on loan at Darlington in October 1990, he finally left Ayresome Park in search of regular football at Wolverhampton Wanderers, signing for £25,000 in March 1991. This move reunited him with Graham Turner, who had been Villa manager at the time of Burke's arrival there.

The midfielder made his Wolves debut in a 3-3 draw with Oxford on 16 March 1991 but was again unable to hold down a regular first team spot. His best season at Molineux came in 1992/93 when he managed 34 appearances, scoring 8 times - the best seasonal tally of his career - but he was again on the periphery for the following campaign.

After a short spell on loan at Luton Town in March 1994, he returned to his parent club to find Graham Taylor, another of his former managers from his Villa days, was now at the helm. Burke was unable to win a place in Taylor's plans though, and had a trial at Spurs, before eventually being joining Port Vale in August 1994. He spent just one season at Vale (1994/95) before quitting England to explore foreign football.

His first foreign club were Fortuna Sittard in the Dutch Eredivisie, where he played under Pim Verbeek, who subsequently signed him at J2 League club Omiya Ardija (of Tokyo) in June 1999. Burke eventually returned to Europe after his contract expired in Japan and spent some time training with Fortuna Sittard again before signing for Rapid Bucharest on a short-term contract in March 2001, making him the first English footballer to ever play in Romania.[1]

He currently divides his time between working as a financial negotiator for an English-based land property company and residing with his family in Maastricht, Holland. He has also written several ebooks on football skills and techniques.

External links

• Personal blogsite
• Mark Burke feature