Safe hands and sliding doors: The incredible legacy of Mark Schwarzer

Mark Schwarzer can still recall the look of terror in Eddie Thomson’s eyes.

It was 1993, and Australia was playing a World Cup qualifier against Canada in Edmonton. Fifteen minutes into the match, goalkeeper Robert Zabica made a rash challenge on striker Dale Mitchell, who had broken through the Socceroos’ defensive line and was bearing down on goal.

Zabica clattered into him just outside his box. Schwarzer, aged 20 and just a couple of months removed from winning the National Soccer League grand final with Marconi, was expecting him to be shown a yellow card. But after a period of deliberation, the referee produced a straight red – prompting a shocked Thomson, the then-Socceroos coach, to turn to his bench and look at the player he’d have to send on.

“I remember Eddie Thomson just turning to me with his eyes wide open,” Schwarzer says.

“Probably thinking: ‘Oh my god. Now I’ve got to play him’.”

In a more just world, Schwarzer wouldn’t have even been there. He’d been called up only because Mark Bosnich, then Australia’s best goalkeeper, chose club over country, a common dilemma before FIFA introduced designated international windows in 2002. The Canada games clashed with the start of the Premier League season, and Bosnich, trying to cement his spot at Aston Villa, withdrew. Schwarzer got the last-minute call-up.

“It was such an unfair scenario for ‘Bozza’ and other players to be in,” Schwarzer says. “It was completely out of order for them to be put in that position. The good thing is it’s been changed. But obviously, whenever those sort of scenarios develop, there’s more often than not someone else who benefits from it.”

That was him.

These were the inauspicious circumstances that launched his almost 20-year international career: one that spanned four World Cup cycles, a record 109 caps and some of the most important moments in Australian football history. It has now been recognised with a place in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame, making him just the ninth footballer to be inducted.

It wasn’t the steadiest start. After coming on, Schwarzer conceded at his near post as Canada prevailed 2-1 over the 10-man Socceroos but in the second leg in Sydney, Australia won by the same scoreline, forcing the tie into extra time and then penalties: Schwarzer emerged as the hero by making two saves in the shootout.

Bosnich was back in the team by the time the Socceroos faced Diego Maradona’s Argentina in another losing World Cup qualifying play-off. It wasn’t until another two saves in a shootout more than a decade later, against Uruguay, that Schwarzer would become a household name, and that the Socceroos would actually break their long World Cup drought.

‘There were football fans that were born that night’

The story of “that night”, as it has come to be known – Mark Bresciano’s goal, Tony Popovic’s substitution after just 31 minutes for Harry Kewell, the tension of extra time, Schwarzer’s famous stops to deny Darío Rodríguez and Marcelo Zalayeta’s penalties, Mark Viduka’s miss, the eternal image of a shirtless John Aloisi wheeling away after scoring his, and how it all turbocharged the growth of the sport in Australia – has been told and retold so many times that, in truth, there is nothing new to say about it.

But the impact still echoes today.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of that landmark achievement – one that, without a hint of hyperbole, Schwarzer believes changed not only the face of Australian sport, but the trajectory of thousands upon thousands of lives, far beyond the players and coaches who were directly involved.

As he processed the heartbreak of their failure against Uruguay four years earlier, Schwarzer remembers sitting on the team bus in Montevideo, telling himself: “We just need to qualify. If we qualify, the game is going to change.”

As a young fan, Schwarzer remembers watching the Socceroos continually fall short of qualification, contemplating the possibility that it would never actually happen.

“We’re never going to get there. We’re just so far away from it,” he thought. “You just felt that there was something seriously missing.

“And then obviously as a player, at that stage in my career, I was thinking: ‘Gosh. Am I going to miss out on this opportunity? Is it going to be after I finish playing that we’re going to qualify? Am I going to be one of these players that just misses out, like so many – like Ned Zelic, Paul Okon, just to name a couple’. They were instrumental in us coming through as players. They were kind of like the pioneers of the game … they missed out. I still sometimes think about it.”

Strikers always get the glory, so Aloisi’s celebration became the enduring symbol but Schwarzer’s performance was a seminal moment of its own. It became the benchmark by which all future Australian penalty shootouts would be measured, and it inspired many young footballers to pick up the gloves.

“It’s a ripple effect on not just football players, but the football community,” he says.

“There were football fans that were born that night, that were sucked into supporting the national team. As players who were playing week in, week out at the highest levels, in front of massive crowds and massive stadiums. It was hard to take, going back to Australia not having that all the time.

“For people not to fully understand, or to really get that feeling of what it’s like to go to a World Cup … we’ve seen it, we’ve watched it but we’ve never been part of it. We all talked about it. We knew that things would change. Part of it was always about, if you can create change as big as this, to qualify again for only our second World Cup, after 32 years, this rollercoaster of emotions and experiences that we’d all been part of … but none of us thought it would change to the effect that it did.”

‘The boys won the title, not me’

Setting aside his contribution at international level, Schwarzer’s club career alone is possibly grounds for Hall of Fame induction. After enduring some tough early years in Germany, the country of his parents’ heritage, he made his name in England. Indeed, no Aussie has played more often in the Premier League than Schwarzer, who made 514 appearances across 21 seasons for Middlesbrough, Fulham, Chelsea and Leicester City. The next best, Lucas Neill, made 279 appearances, so it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone bettering Schwarzer’s record, a testament to his longevity, which was incredible even for goalkeepers, who tend to have longer careers than outfields and who can play on into their 40s, as he did.

“The beauty of the position is if you’re able to maintain your levels of fitness and be a little bit lucky in terms of injuries, you’re able to play a lot longer than most outfield players,” he says. “That was obviously something that I was able to do.”

Through all of that time, Schwarzer won just one trophy. Well, there are two others, for which he gives himself zero credit but those aside, it’s just the 2003-04 League Cup he helped Middlesbrough win as their starting goalkeeper, coming in his seventh season of regular football.

His only regret? That was in 2010, when Arsene Wenger wanted to bring him to Arsenal. Schwarzer was 37 and eager to play for a club that was not only contending for the Premier League title, but also playing in the UEFA Champions League – a new experience for him.

At first, Fulham were open to selling him; manager Roy Hodgson told Schwarzer as such. But then Hodgson moved to Liverpool, and his replacement Mark Hughes was interested in letting him only go if the Cottagers could bring in another goalkeeper first. That didn’t happen, and the door was slammed shut.

“That was the one and only time in my career that I really struggled with a decision,” Schwarzer says. “I was desperate, and I was doing everything I possibly could to facilitate the move, but the club were working completely against me.”

Schwarzer eventually got his move to a big club. A few years later, he became Jose Mourinho’s first signing of his second stint in charge of Chelsea. He became the oldest player, at 41 years and 65 days, to debut in the Champions League, in one of 12 first-team appearances he made in the 2013-14 season, serving as an experienced back-up to Petr Cech and Hilario.

He made zero appearances in the 2014-15 season, in which Chelsea won the Premier League, which meant he didn’t qualify for a winner’s medal, although Mourinho announced that he would get one made for him to recognise his contribution behind the scenes. Halfway through it, Schwarzer had left for Leicester City.

“It’s a funny one, because I know he said that. But I never received anything,” Schwarzer says.

“I actually didn’t want one. I was never in a matchday squad, and I never played a single game in the Premier League; actually, any game at all for Chelsea that season. They did give me a replica trophy, which was just a really nice gesture, right? But it’s in a cupboard in its box … it’s not something that I pull it out and go, ‘You want to see a replica of the Premier League trophy? Here it is’.

“I’m not trying to belittle it. It’s just the way I am ... if I’m not playing, I don’t feel 100 per cent part of it. I feel like I’ve contributed, but it’s still not me who’s won it.”

Schwarzer feels the same way about being part of the Leicester City squad that won the 2015-16 Premier League. Again, he didn’t make a single appearance in any competition that season but he did get an unrivalled vantage point as one of world sport’s all-time great underdog stories unfolded around him.

History will show that Schwarzer became the first player since Eric Cantona to win the Premier League in back-to-back seasons with different teams. But he says he feels “embarrassed” about being described as a two-time Premier League winner.

“The boys won the title, not me. I don’t consider myself as winning the title,” he says.

“I was in an unbelievable position, having front-row - well, second-row seats, because I was behind the manager and the coaching staff. I was on the bench for 37 out of 38 games. I had first-class views of a remarkable accomplishment by the players. Yes, it’s a team game and I played a part, a small, small part, and that’s it.“

Originally I thought, ‘am I being punked here?’

Schwarzer retired from international duty in 2013. He decided it would be better to quit on his own terms than risk being another high-profile casualty of the Ange Postecoglou revolution, having recognised that his style didn’t match the new Socceroos boss – and that, since he was no longer playing regularly at club level by that stage, his spot in the team was in jeopardy.

The man who succeeded him as Australia’s first-choice goalkeeper, Maty Ryan, is catching up on him fast. It is hard to imagine Maty Ryan (100) not overtaking both second-ranked Tim Cahill (108) and Schwarzer (109) and claiming that all-time caps record before he hangs up his boots and gloves.

Ryan, like all aspiring goalkeepers of his vintage, has cited Schwarzer as his inspiration. The respect is mutual, but that won’t stop Schwarzer from giving an honest assessment about where he is at as he approaches what would be his fourth World Cup.

Ryan, 33, is looking for yet another club after being released by French outfit RC Lens – one that ideally would make him a first-choice starter.

“That’s the thing that worries me about Maty,” he says.

“I think some of his recent club decisions have been questionable. When he went to Roma, I just thought: ‘what is he doing? He’s not going to play’.

“As a player, you believe in your ability. You believe you can make a difference. But there’s also reality. And when you’re trying to dislodge a regular starter, someone who’s been in that role for a long time, it’s incredibly difficult. At this stage of his career, with so many important games coming up, it goes back to what I’ve always believed in: you’ve got to be playing week in, week out. I thought he looked like a different player when he went to FC Copenhagen and then to Lens. He was switched on, match fit, he had a different aura about him. That’s the key.”

And that brings us to today. Upon retirement, Schwarzer entered the media, and he has been a revelation as a pundit. He is best known to Australian audiences for his work with Optus Sport, although he also provides commentary on German Bundesliga matches with other broadcasters.

Schwarzer doesn’t rely on hot takes or “back in my day” stories, but approaches the job with a thorough, almost journalistic approach to research and preparation.

“More and more ex-players are getting involved. As someone in that field, if you don’t do your prep, you’re going to fall by the wayside really quickly,” he says.

It also enables Schwarzer to live a comfortable life, splitting his time between England and the south of Spain. He can’t see himself moving back to Australia, although that was his original plan; the ease of access to top-level football anywhere in Europe is too good to pass up.

And in any case, home is only ever one business class flight away.

“When people ask me what I am, I say obviously I’m Australian first and foremost – but I’m also European,” he says.

”I feel very much European. I love Europe. I love everything about Europe. I love the fact that where I am it’s so accessible to transportation to get out of the UK if I need to. I drive to Spain. I take two of my dogs with me each time. In an hour and a half I can be in France. Different cultures, different languages. Everything about it, I love.“

Schwarzer will be in Sydney again in November, when the Socceroos will mark the 20-year anniversary of “that night” against Uruguay with a friendly against a yet-to-be determined opponent. When he next steps on Aussie soil, he will do so with his place in our sporting history further enshrined.

Schwarzer didn’t quite know what to think when he heard from John Bertrand, chairman of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame and the skipper of the 1983 America’s Cup-winning yacht Australia II, to let him know he was being inducted.

“Originally I thought, ‘am I being punked here? I just had a random number from Australia call me’,” he said.

”So I was a little bit sceptical at first, and hesitant to really take it on board. It wasn’t until maybe even about half an hour to an hour afterwards … I thought it just sounded like him and sounded real. And then I received an email not long afterwards and I thought, ‘yeah, this is legit’.

“Once I worked out it was for real … you kind of go, ‘OK, let’s have a look at who’s in it’. I’ll be the ninth footballer. And obviously there’s some fantastic people that are on that list already. To be part of that is very special.”

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