Mark Schwarzer Profile

Mark Schwarzer Profile A profile on Middlesbroughs Number1: Mark Schwarzer

Personal Information.

Full Name: Mark Schwarzer                

D.O.B: October 6th 1972 (age 35)  

Place of Birth: Sydney, Australia        

Height: 1.96m (6ft 5”)
  
Years                                    Club                         Appearances
1990-1994                          Marconi Stallions               58 (0)
1994-1995                          Dynamo Dresden                2 (0)
1995-1996                          Kaiserslautern                     4 (0)
1996-1997                          Bradford City                      13 (0)
1997-present                     Middlesbrough                342 (0)     

Family Life

Schwarzer is of German descent, his parents Hans-Joachim and Doris having emigrated to Australia in the 1960s. He speaks English, Spanish and German. Mark and his wife Paloma have two children; a son, Julian, and a daughter, Amaya.

Club career

After spells at Dynamo Dresden, FC Kaiserslautern and Bradford City, Schwarzer joined Middlesbrough in April 1997. He is considered a large contributor to the recent success of Middlesbrough and an important part of the team.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 Boro came in the last match of the 2004-05 season against Manchester City, saving a Robbie Fowlerpenalty in stoppage time to preserve a 1-1 draw. The draw was sufficient to put Boro 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 Boro's expense. The save made him a local hero for Middlesbrough: as local radio commentator Alistair Brownlee excitedly declared, "Get in, Get in you big Aussie! The greatest Australian hero since Ned Kelly!".

Mark Schwarzer was granted a transfer request by Middlesbrough late in 2005 and sought to join a new club, but he withdrew his request on January 20, 2006, and rejoined the team. However, a fractured cheekbone sustained against West Ham 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.

International career

He made his international debut against Canada in Edmonton in a 1994 World Cup qualifier. He came on as a subsititute 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 guessed the direction of the penalty kick, he was unable to save the penalty in the 2nd 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 has personally vowed to return for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. As of September 2006, Schwarzer has been capped 40 times for Australia. He played in all of Australia's matches in the AFC 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.

Mark Scwarzer Trivia.Mark Schwarzer has worn the same pair of shinpads since he started his career at the age of 19 with Marconi Stallions. Schwarzer claims that the penalty-shootout loss in the Asian Cup quarter-finals was the first penalty-shootout in his career that he had ever lost .

*All information provided wikipedia.org
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