Archive for August, 2008

THE AGE MELBOURNE - RUPERT BATES

Once upon a time there was a Soccer player in England who wrote books. He showed them to the other soccer players but they could not read books, yet alone write them.
It is lazy to label English Premier League stars as thick and self-obsessed. But when you hear Cristiano Ronaldo feels enslaved on A$250,000 a week because Manchester United will not let the Portuguese break his contract, to chat to Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who sees out contracts the way he keeps out penalties, is hugely refreshing.
Especially so when the conversation strays outside the penalty area and London club Fulham’s new goalkeeper talks about how his series of children’s books is going. Very well actually.
“There is a deal on the table with a production company to turn the books into a TV series in both the UK and Australia,” said Schwarzer, who is also a United Nations ambassador for refugees.
Schwarzer, preparing for the start of the Premier League season on Saturday, is quick to acknowledge his co-author Neil Montagnana-Wallace as they worked together to produce Megs and the Vootball Kids about how an English boy from Liverpool moves to Australia and is socially and culturally challenged by a nation that calls football soccer and where the game is a minority sport. It is in part autobiographical for Schwarzer, whose parents are German and who is married to a Filipino, knows all about the undertow in the ethnic soup.
“There are a lot of multi-cultural issues in the stories which were drawn from personal experience and hopefully a lot of subjects kids can relate to in terms of overcoming problems and forging friendships,” said Schwarzer, born in North Richmond in Sydney’s Western Suburbs at the foot of the Blue Mountains.
This is a surreal conversation to be having with a soccer player, or “footballer” as Schwarzer insists on being called. Even if Schwarzer did resort to clichéd conversation he could do it in English, German or Spanish.
“Football is the biggest sport on the planet and we have got to stop calling it soccer. Australia won a massive new audience by qualifying for the last World Cup. Now we must do it again,” said Schwarzer.
For a man paid to keep them out Schwarzer, 35, sets himself plenty of goals and he is ticking them off one by one. To play for Australia was an ambition: Tick 57 times and counting. To play in the English Premier League: Tick and what’s more his 11 years at Middlesbrough saw him surpass Arsenal’s Dennis Bergkamp as the longest- serving foreigner at any Premier League club.
“I had a fantastic time at Middlesbrough, but it is time for a new chapter in my life and I have re-set my goals to play in South Africa in 2010, which would make us the first Australian team to qualify for back-to-back World Cup finals.”
After the agony of defeat to Italy in Germany, several of the Australian players looked around for guidance. Was this as good as it gets? Was it time for the Europe-based Socceroos stars, who had graced football’s greatest stage, to head home to graze the A League acres back home?
“A lot of people asked me if that was it, as if to say if you pack it in, so will we. I was not ready and set myself a new goal,” said Schwarzer.
Fulham may be Chelsea’s poorer south-west London neighbour, but after miraculously escaping relegation on points difference last season the club has invested wisely, including the signings of strikers Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora.
Schwarzer’s wife Paloma and their two children Julian and Amaya joined him in London last week, doubtless aware that Fulham chairman Mohamed Al Fayed’s business portfolio includes Harrods, the world’s most famous department store.
Schwarzer joins former Melbourne Victory defender Adrian Heijer at Craven Cottage and not surprisingly for an area of London where every other barman is an Aussie Mark Bresciano and Vince Grella have both been touted as Fulham targets on the Premier League transfer grapevine.
Schwarzer tried a bit of everything at Colo High School in the Western Suburbs and was more than useful at rugby league and basketball, before soccer took over. While at home in rural New South Wales he would go pony trotting round his parents’ track.
“I love all sports, but while rugby and cricket in Australia are struggling to pull in the crowds, football is booming in terms of support. We need to ensure our playing standards grow with the support.”
Schwarzer will be available for friendlies against South Africa in London and Holland in Eindhoven, before Australia’s next round of World Cup qualification starts against Uzbekistan in Tashkent next month.
Fulham kick off their Premier League season at newly promoted Hull on Saturday, followed by Arsenal and Manchester United. A new chapter for Schwarzer, but unless Fulham’s back four proves a fortress it is difficult to see when the multi-cultural, multi-dimensional goalkeeper will get time to write it. As a lesson in humility Ronaldo should read the Australian’s story, or at least look at the pictures.

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