Schwarzer Mark life and biography

Mark Schwarzer (born 6 October 1972) is an Australian football goalkeeper, who currently plays for English Premier League team Fulham. He also represents Australia in international matches, and was the team's goalkeeper at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Schwarzer has worn the same pair of shinpads since he started his professional career at the age of 19 with Marconi Stallions, in the National Soccer League. He left the Sydney based club to play in Germany with Dynamo Dresden, FC Kaiserslautern and Bradford City, Schwarzer joined Middlesbrough in February 1997. He was considered a large contributor to the recent success of Middlesbrough and an important part of the team.

Middlesbrough
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. However, he was part of the side 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. However, a fractured cheekbone sustained against West Ham United looked like it had ruled Schwarzer out for the rest of the season, but he returned for the UEFA Cup final against Sevilla, 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.

Fulham
Schwarzer's contract with Middlesbrough expired in June 2008, and although he was offered a new contract, 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. 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 1 keeper.

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 7th 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 08-09 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.

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. 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 Zeljko 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.

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.

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. 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 – in the final game against Japan.

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

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. His parents Hans-Joachim and Doris emigrated to Australia from Germany in 1968. 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.


Senior career

1990–1994 Marconi Stallions
1994–1995 Dynamo Dresden
1995–1996 Kaiserslautern
1996–1997 Bradford City
1997–2008 Middlesbrough
2008– Fulham

National team

1989 Australia U17
1990–1991 Australia U20
1993– Australia

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