Mark Schwarzer

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Mark Schwarzer
Mark Schwarzer.jpg
Mark Schwarzer, 2008
Personnel
birthday October 6, 1972
place of birth Sydney ,  Australia
size 194 cm
position goal
Juniors
Years station
Colo Cougars
Penrith
Blacktown Association
0000-1990 Marconi Stallions
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1990-1994 Marconi Fairfield 58 (0)
1994-1995 Dynamo Dresden 2 (0)
1995-1996 1. FC Kaiserslautern 4 (0)
1996-1997 Bradford City 13 (0)
1997-2008 Middlesbrough FC 367 (0)
2008-2013 Fulham FC 172 (0)
2013-2015 Chelsea FC 4 (0)
2015-2016 Leicester City 6 (0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1989 Australia U17 6 (0)
1990-1991 Australia U20 8 (0)
1993-2013 Australia 109 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Mark Schwarzer , OAM (born October 6, 1972 in Sydney ) is a former Australian soccer goalkeeper and record national player for Australia.

During his professional career spanning more than two decades, he found his sporting luck in England, especially from 1996, and can still refer to most Premier League appearances by a non-British player. From 1993 to 2013, was World Cup finalists of 2006 and 2010 , the grounds of origin of his parents also have the German citizenship has, integral part of the Australian national team , with which he 2004 the Ozeanienmeisterschaft won.

Career

Beginnings

After the parents Doris and Hans-Joachim emigrated from Stuttgart to Australia in 1967 , Mark Schwarzer was born a good five years later in their new home in Sydney . German was mostly spoken at home, and there was an early interest in football in general and the German national team in particular - Rudi Völler , Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Toni Schumacher were the first role models here. Schwarzer played soccer in the school team that his father coached and when the latter ordered him into goal one day for lack of a volunteer, a career as a goalkeeper found its origin.

The first club station at the age of less than seven was the Colo Cougars and as a 15-year-old teenager Schwarzer moved to the West Sydney-based club Marconi Fairfield . He spent four years until 1994 in their professional team, which played in the National Soccer League (NSL) - the then highest Australian soccer league. In the 1992/93 season he won not only the national title but also the award for best goalkeeper of the NSL. Schwarzer, who made his debut in the senior national team in 1993, finally moved to the center of world football in Europe and due to his parentage, language skills and dual citizenship, a move to Germany was particularly obvious.

Bumpy start in Germany (1994–1996)

The first club station in his parents' home country was Dynamo Dresden in the 1994/95 season , which was active in the 1st Bundesliga at that time . For Dresden and against Borussia Dortmund had spoken that he should hold the position of the direct substitute behind the 31-year-old Stanislaw Tschertschessow in Dresden and, unlike in Dortmund, should not only be number three. So Schwarzer started the Germany adventure motivated and left good impressions in training. In the relegation battle, however, coach Horst Hrubesch mostly relied on "proven forces" and the then long-haired black man who, despite his language skills in the Saxon environment, had difficulties getting used to the situation, had the reputation of temporarily not being able to use his great talent in pressure situations. At the end of the 1994/95 season he rose with Dresden from bottom of the table. He was only used in two games.

Schwarzer then moved to 1. FC Kaiserslautern at the beginning of the 1995/96 season , where Friedel Rausch only provided him with the role of substitute goalkeeper. Between November and December 1995 he was in four Bundesliga games for the "red devils" between the posts and otherwise Rausch trusted Andreas Reinke . The sporting development of the club itself was as bad as before in Dresden. Despite winning the DFB Cup in 1996 , Schwarzer was relegated third from bottom for the second time in a row from the 1st Bundesliga. It followed a short time in the 2nd Bundesliga under the new coach Otto Rehhagel , who immediately promoted Gerry Ehrmann to the new substitute behind Reinke and thus Schwarzer on the siding. The increasingly bitter black man finally followed the call from England and when he played a test match against Bradford City in autumn 1996 following an offer from Manchester City , the two professional years in Germany ended. The new employer was not Manchester City, but the test match opponent from Bradford.

Sporting breakthrough in England (1996-2008)

Bradford City, coached by Chris Kamara , was active in the second-rate First Division at the time and Schwarzer quickly developed into a crowd -pleaser in the Valley Parade Stadium at home . Between November 1996 and February 1997 he played 16 competitive games for the "Bantams" before he moved on again. With a significant increase in value, he moved to the Premier League for Middlesbrough FC for a transfer fee of 1.5 million pounds  - the original purchase price for Bradford was 350,000 pounds.

After a successful debut in the league cup semi-final against Stockport County (2-0), he was the new goalkeeper at "Boro" under coach Bryan Robson , who also followed Craig Johnston in the tradition of good Australian players in the club. He proved to be a reliable support in the relegation battle and conceded only four goals in the last six league games. However, this was not enough to maintain the class and for the third year in a row Schwarzer suffered relegation to a second division - but a three-point penalty from the current season was largely to blame. He also narrowly missed a possible triumph in the League Cup. After he had to accept a late 1-1 draw in the first game of the final against Leicester City , he missed the 0-1 replay due to injury. Just one year later, Schwarzer returned to the Premier League with Middlesbrough FC and the Australian was finally promoted to the ranks of top goalkeepers in English football. Above all, it was appreciated that he showed himself to be very agile despite his height of 1.94 meters and displayed a “positive craziness” with courage and calculated risk, which is said to goalkeepers at a high level. In addition, there was a fundamental calm in the positional play and the ability to convert intercepted (flank) balls into dangerous counter attacks through precise tees and throws. In addition to the first division promotion over the runner-up, Schwarzer again reached the league cup final in 1998, which was lost again due to a 2-0 defeat against Chelsea .

The fact that Middlesbrough FC did not have to worry about staying in the class in the 1999/2000 season after being promoted again in the summer of 1999 was due in large part to Schwarzer's good performances, which were reflected in 13 Premier League games without conceding a goal . As the now legitimate successor to Stephen Pears  - long-time goalkeeper of "Boro" between 1985 and 1995 - he could not defend the good ninth place in the Premier League, but 12th place was in the 1999/2000 season against the background of the major injury problems the team, from which Schwarzer himself was excluded, to be seen as a respectable success. Schwarzer recorded a personal success in the league cup final against Arsenal , in which he parried two penalties during the penalty shoot-out - in the subsequent round, however, he was out against the lower class Tranmere Rovers (1: 2).

Even at the beginning of the new decade, Schwarzer was always in secure midfield with Middlesbrough FC under Steve McClaren as the new head coach. This was expressed in the positions in the final table, which between 2001 and 2004 continuously ranged from 11th to 14th. The climax of a positive development towards the mid-2000s was winning the league cup in 2004 after Schwarzer and his team had defeated the Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the final . This enabled the Australian to take part in a European club competition for the first time in the 2004/05 season , which was considered to be a decisive factor in the fact that Schwarzer extended his expiring contract despite numerous offers from other Premier League clubs. Schwarzer's first football trip to Europe ended in the round of 16 against Sporting Lisbon , but seventh place in the Premier League ensured another UEFA Cup qualification. Blacker had parried a penalty from Robbie Fowler on the last day of the game against Manchester City and secured the 1-1 draw. In the second attempt , Middlesbrough FC moved into the final against Sevilla FC , which Schwarzer played with a special mask after a broken jaw - the game ended in a 4-0 defeat.

Schwarzer spent two more years in Middlesbrough without celebrating any notable successes. Personal milestones were to be found in record marks, for example when he became the foreigner with the most Premier League games on December 27, 2007 with his 316th league appearance and surpassed the former record holder Dennis Bergkamp . After his contract expired, Schwarzers ended an eleven-year liaison with “Boro”. He had turned down one last offer from the new coach Gareth Southgate in June 2008.

Fulham FC (2008-2013)

Schwarzer signed a two-year contract with Fulham , where he had simultaneously failed offers from the top European clubs FC Bayern Munich and Juventus Turin because he was only offered the role of substitute goalkeeper there. Schwarzer had no adjustment problems in London and he not only completed all 38 Premier League games under coach Roy Hodgson , but also led the club in the 2008/09 season with the fourth fewest goals conceded in the league to qualify for the newly created Europa League . He won the club's internal election for Player of the Season and reached the Europa League final with the team, in which he was narrowly defeated 2-1 at Atlético Madrid on May 12, 2010 .

Although now already 37 years old, Arsenal FC made efforts in the summer of 2010 to sign Schwarzer and replace the much-criticized Manuel Almunia and Łukasz Fabiański . A change did not materialize, however, which was mainly due to the veto of the new sporting director Mark Hughes , who did not release the goalkeeper, who had been tied up until the end of the 2011/12 season, from the contract.

Career finale at Chelsea FC and Leicester City (2013–2016)

After the expiry of his contract at FC Fulham Schwarzer joined the 2013/14 season as a substitute behind Petr Cech to Chelsea . He signed a contract until the end of the season.

On January 6, 2015, Schwarzer moved to Leicester City . There he made his debut in the 3-1 away defeat against Manchester United on the 23rd match day of the 2014/15 season. In the following season he was with Leicester champions of the Premier League, but without having come to use this season. After the championship, Schwarzer left Leicester City and ended his career a short time later.

Australian national team

Black 2010 in the jersey of the national team

Between 1989 and 1991, Schwarzer played for several Australian junior national teams. In the successful Junior World Cup in Portugal , when the "Aussies" reached the semi-finals, he did not take part due to injury and had to let Mark Bosnich go first. After six games for the U-17 and a total of eight appearances for the U-20 selection , he made his debut at the age of 20 on July 31, 1993 against Canada (1: 2) for the Australian senior team. In the play-off semi-final first leg to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA , he replaced Robert Zabica , who had been put out of place after an emergency brake , while field player Milan Blagojevic was substituted for him. In the second leg too, Schwarzer stood between the posts and helped his team to reach the play-off finals against Argentina after a 2-1 penalty over two saved penalties , in which he was not there.

Schwarzer did not become regular goalkeeper until 2000, after he had finally established himself in England and ousted predecessor Mark Bosnich . He took part in the Confederations Cup in the summer of 2001 and was a second time in a play-off final as part of the World Cup qualification for the 2002 World Cup , which was played in November 2001 against Uruguay after a return match (1: 0, 0: 3) was lost again. Subsequently, Schwarzer set his priorities more and more on club football and did not start again until the next qualification phase. He played the 2004 OFC Nations Cup , whose group phase was identical to the second World Cup qualifying round, and won it after a final victory against the Solomon Islands (5-1, 6-0). This was followed by his second participation in a Confederations Cup in the summer of 2005 . He became a “hero” in November 2005 when he  parried two penalties from the Uruguayans in the decisive penalty shoot-out against Uruguay - again opponent in a qualification - and thus gave the “Socceroos” their first participation in the World Cup in 32 years. In the first two Australian group matches of the World Cup against Japan (3: 1) and Brazil (0: 2), Schwarzer was in goal before coach Guus Hiddink relied on Zeljko Kalac in the third game against Croatia (2: 2) . In the round of 16 against Italy , Schwarzer returned to the team. There he was exposed to a decisive penalty duel against Francesco Totti in stoppage time and had no chance, although he had anticipated the right corner.

After the World Cup tournament, he played all Australian games in the course of the Asian Cup in 2007 and lost a penalty shoot-out for the first time in his career after surviving the group phase in the quarter-finals against Japan . The next highlight was his second qualification for a world championship in 2010 . Unlike four years earlier, this was the end of the line after the group stage and Schwarzer, who was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia by his home country in 2009 , conceded in the games against Germany (0: 4), Ghana (1: 1) and Serbia (2: 1) conceded six goals.

On September 6, 2012, he became the first Australian to make his 100th international match against Lebanon . On July 31, 2013, the 20th anniversary of his international debut, he became only the sixth national player in the world to have played in a national team for at least 20 years. Up until then, only Pat Jennings (1986), Lothar Matthäus (2000), Hossam Hassan (2005), Jari Litmanen (2009) and Sarkis Howsepjan (2012) could achieve this mark .

On November 6, 2013, he announced the end of his national team career. He made his last international match on September 7, 2013 against Brazil , which was lost 6-0.

Titles as well as successes

society

National team

Personal awards

Others

Mark Schwarzer and his wife are parents to a son and a daughter. Son Julian is also a soccer goalkeeper and has been playing for German regional league club FC Pipinsried since August 2018 .

Web links

Commons : Mark Schwarzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mark Schwarzer in the G2C Exclusive Interview ( Memento from February 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (Goal2Career)
  2. ^ "Australia's keeper Mark Schwarzer: Always bad luck with Germany" (SPIEGEL Online)
  3. ^ "Meet the Families: Mark Schwarzer" ( Memento from April 29, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (The World Cup Dream)
  4. ↑ Positive role model: Mark Schwarzer (Penrith Press)
  5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 242 .
  6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 268 .
  7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 267 .
  8. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 2000-2001 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 2000, ISBN 1-85291-626-5 , pp. 284 .
  9. ↑ "Mark Schwarzer nabs Premier League record" (Herald Sun)
  10. ^ "Schwarzer offered new Boro deal" (BBC Sport)
  11. ^ "Fulham complete Schwarzer signing" (BBC Sport)
  12. ↑ "Fulham rebuff second Arsenal Black offer" (Daily Mirror)
  13. ↑ Chelsea Sign Mark Schwarzer ( Memento of July 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), communication from Chelsea FC
  14. ↑ Chelsea FC: Schwarzer leaves for Leicester , January 6, 2015, accessed January 8, 2015.
  15. ↑ Transfer list on the Premier League website (offline)
  16. ↑ "Canada 2 - Australia 1" (ozfootball.net)
  17. ↑ "Australia 2 - Canada 1" (ozfootball.net)
  18. ↑ "Socceroo Internationals for 1993" (ozfootball.net)
  19. ^ "Schwarzer on wrong foot for first time" (theage.com.au)
  20. ↑ Schwarzer: “A real milestone for me” , fifa.com of September 9, 2012 (accessed on September 20, 2012).
  21. ↑ fifa.com: "Black man ends national team career"
  22. ↑ Bruno Haelke: Julien Black Garcia: From Fulham after Pipinsried. August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Schwarzer, Mark
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian soccer goalkeeper and record player for Australia
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1972
PLACE OF BIRTH Sydney , Australia