Mark Schwarzer OAM was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2025 as an Athlete Member for his contribution to the sport of Football
An integral member of Australian football’s “Golden Generation”, Mark Schwarzer carved out one of the most decorated and enduring playing careers across more than 25 years.
The son of German immigrants, and a kid who grew up in western Sydney, Schwarzer became the cool, composed goalkeeper whose shot-stopping prowess helped Australia to qualify for three World Cups, in 2006, 2010 and 2014, before retiring in the lead-up to the 2014 tournament.
He broke the record as our most capped Socceroo, overtaking Alex Tobin, to register 109 games from his 1993 debut through to his last representative game in 2013.
His passion for representing his country – and the magical saves that changed Australia’s World Cup fortunes, including two thrilling penalty saves against Uruguay in a 2006 qualifier – etched his name in Australian football history.
Hard work, dedication, and a relentless quest to be the best in the English Premier League set him apart from many other keepers. His longevity and methodical approach to training and playing made him the first non-Briton to play more than 500 EPL games for five clubs: Bradford City, Middlesbrough, Fulham, Chelsea and Leicester City.
He was almost 41 when he played his last game for Australia, and 43 when he played his final game for Leicester City.
Schwarzer was awarded the medal of the Order of Australia in 2009 and inducted into the Football Australia Hall of Fame in 2021.
It’s one of world sport’s “nerves of steel” occupations, and the man who danced the tightrope more effectively – and for longer – than any Australian goalkeeper had the perfect mindset required for this critical role.
Schwarzer, who became Australia’s first-choice keeper for 20 years as well as being one of the most enduring English Premier League players, balanced the pressure he had to deal with alongside a surety that he had always put in the necessary preparation to get the job done.
Asked on Optus Sports what set his role apart from other positions, Schwarzer summed it up by saying: “As a goalkeeper, (if) you make one mistake or you switch off for a second, that’s it. If you make a mistake, you’ve cost the team right there.
“The concentration level for 90 minutes, reading the game and understanding the flow of the game. You have to be prepared and make a save at a second’s notice.”
Schwarzer prided himself on keeping clean sheets, 152 in the EPL and 44 for his country. And he made some of the most important saves in Australian football history.
John Aloisi kicked the Socceroos into their first World Cup in 32 years on a wild night in Sydney in 2005, with his penalty goal and resulting victory dance, his jersey swinging above his head. But that signature moment would never have happened without Schwarzer’s two brilliant saves that denied Uruguay and kept the door ajar for Aloisi as a nation held its breath.
Two fist pumps from Schwarzer after each save turned the heat up on the opposition and gave Aloisi a massive confidence boost before he stepped up to take his history-making kick.
“We owe him a lot,” Aloisi said later. “I was feeling a little bit nervous before that last penalty that he saved. And once he saved it, the confidence came back. All I needed to do was put it in the back of the net, and thanks to ‘Schwarzy’ I was able to do that.”
Schwarzer’s childhood dream of helping the Socceroos qualify for the first time since 1974, when he was two, had come to fruition.
The first of his two World Cup finals came in Germany in 2006, the country his parents Hans and Doris migrated from in 1967, before Mark’s birth – and where their son played his first international football when he first left Australia.
Doris said of the move: “We had nothing to lose. We said if it doesn’t work out, we (would) go back after two years.”
Thankfully, it all worked out and their son would end up wearing the green and gold with pride.
He recalled his father’s passion for football and how he started out with the junior club Colo Cougars and went on to play with Marconi Stallions in the National Soccer League, before realising his future lay overseas, where he had cameo roles for German clubs Dynamo Dresden and 1.FC Kaiserslautern.
His 20-year run in the UK started with Bradfield City in 1996, but it was his 11-year career with Middlesbrough where he established himself as one of the game’s most consistent keepers. Middlesbrough won the League Cup final in 2004 despite his costly early mistake, before making two late saves that landed the silverware.
A year later his famous save from an injury-time penalty shot by Manchester City’s Robbie Fowler saw Middlesbrough finish qualifying again for the UEFA Cup.
He said of that big moment: “The thing is, I waited for it … I didn’t guess. I just waited and went right. I thought ‘you (Fowler) make the first move’.”
That save came six months before his Uruguay heroics in Sydney, which sent the Socceroos to the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1974.
At the 2006 World Cup they made it through to the round of 16, after a 3-1 win over Japan, an 0-2 loss to Brazil and a 2-2 draw against Croatia (with Zeljko Kalac in goal), before a heartbreaking 0-1 loss to Italy, despite Schwarzer making a handful of excellent saves.
He also kept for the Socceroos at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where they were eliminated after finishing third in their group. By that stage Schwarzer had moved to Fulham, after powerbrokers at Middlesbrough thought his time in the EPL was over. Far from it – he was determined to prove them wrong. He spent five years at Fulham, passing the 500-match mark and proving the doubters wrong by proving there was still “life in the old dog yet”.
Although he had retired from international football in 2013, he forged ahead in the Premier League as a squad member of title-winning clubs Chelsea and Leicester City, before retiring from all levels of the game at the age of 43 with an enviable career CV.
Part of Schwarzer’s strength as a keeper was his size, 194cm, combined that the neatly balanced agility and cat-like reflexes that saw him pounce on dangerous strikes.
When he called curtains on his career, he was asked what he thought his legacy would be. He said: “I would like to think that I would be looked upon as someone who always worked very hard, (and who) always left everything on the training and the football pitch.”
Anyone who ever played with or against Mark Schwarzer, or those who cheered him from the stands, from the sidelines or on television, would absolutely agree with that sentiment.
Honours & Achievements
- 2008-2009: Fulham Player of the Year
- 2009: Awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia
- 2009: Football Media Association Australia International Player of the Year
- 2009 & 2010: FFA Australian Football Awards: Footballer of the Year
- 2010: Australian Professional Football Association Player of the Year
- 2014: Awarded the Alex Tobin OAM Medal
- 2021: Inducted into the Football Australia Hall of Fame
Photo courtesy Alamy.
