Mark Bosnich

Mark Bosnich

Personal information
Full name	Mark Bosnich
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 26 August 2007

Mark Bosnich (born January 13, 1972 in Fairfield, New South Wales), is an Australian football player. He represented his country on many occasions and played for English Premier League clubs Aston Villa, Manchester United, and Chelsea.

Professional career

Bosnich grew up in a suburb of Sydney, and played briefly for Sydney Croatia. At the age of 16, he moved to England to join Manchester United. After two seasons and only three appearances there, he signed with Aston Villa manager Ron Atkinson to Villa Park. During the 1994 League Cup semi final against Tranmere Rovers he dramatically stopped three shots in a penalty shoot-out. Villa would go on to win the final, against his former club, Manchester United. At Villa he would go on to win another League Cup in 1996 and develop a reputation as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, also establishing himself as the number one keeper for the Australian national team.

Life after Aston Villa

After 227 appearances for Villa, in 1999 he moved back to Manchester United on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling and immediately established himself as Peter Schmeichel's successor as the first team keeper. During the season he picked up a championship medal as United won the 1999-00 Premier League season. He also played a key role in Manchester United becoming the first English team to win the Toyota World Club Championship in keeping a clean sheet against Palmeiras of Brazil, in Tokyo, during the 1999-00 season. However, following a dip in form in the next season, he was soon relegated to third-choice keeper. Choosing to stay at the club, he tried to regain his spot rather than accept being loaned to Celtic F.C. Following disciplinary problems off the field and a fall-out with manager Alex Ferguson during 2001 he was transferred to Chelsea F.C. Bosnich has claimed that Ferguson got rid of him because of his (Bosnich's) "right-wing" politics. Bosnich once publicly gave a Nazi salute at White Hart Lane against Tottenham, a club who have a large Jewish following.

His first-team chances were still limited there, even though he was earning more than £30,000 a week. He had also long fallen out of favour with the national side, losing his spot to Mark Schwarzer.

Career Revival

In early 2007, former Chelsea Team-mate and then QPR goalkeeping coach Ed de Goey gave him inspiration to come out of retirement. By July 2007, Bosnich started training at QPR's training ground in an attempt to initially get fit, with the view to play professionally again. During the summer he lost 15kg and claimed to have regained most of his reflexes. In September he kept a clean sheet in goal during a friendly behind closed doors against Barnet which QPR won 2-0.

He admitted that he is hopeful of selection for Australia to make up for the times he shunned it in favour of his club commitments. "If I ever get the chance to play for Australia again, I will never make the mistake of saying 'no'." He has only represented them 17 times. With the prospect of selections for the Socceroos, his name has come up again with John Boultbee, Football Federation Australia's high performance manager hinting that he may have a chance of selection. "He's got himself back in to a good place from all reports and we're keen to have a chat to see what he might have in mind – and what might be possible for him", Boultbee suggests.

Bosnich is currently undergoing a two-week trial with the Central Coast Mariners. Stepping off his plane from England, Bosnich headed straight to training with the Central Coast side. During an interview with Channel Ten reporters, Bosnich expressed joy with his return to "the game [he] loves."

Bosnich was confirmed to be the starting goalkeeper for Central Coast Mariners for their pre-season cup game against Sydney FC on July 27, 2008.

International career

His first appearance with the national team came in 1990 against touring USSR club side Torpedo, followed by a number of further appearances in 'unofficial' Socceroos matches in the next few years. His first full international appearance came in 1993 against New Zealand in a qualifying match for the 1994 World Cup.

Although his international appearances with the Socceroos were quite rare, they were memorable occasions. Keeping for Australia in the away leg of its home-and-away qualifier with Iran in a failed attempt to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, Australia losing on away goals in what Bosnich descibed as "the lowest moment in Australian soccer". He also competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics for his native country. Bosnich also scored a late penalty for his national team in a 13-0 win over the Solomon Islands.

Personal life

Bosnich went through an apparently bitter marriage breakup around this period, and in September 2002 his football career reached rock-bottom when he failed a drugs test and was subsequently sacked by Chelsea and banned from football for nine months - the longest suspension given to a player in English football at the time.

This suspension was to scupper a move to Premiership side Bolton Wanderers in the winter transfer window of that year. Bosnich was keen on the idea of moving to the Reebok Stadium and the player's agent admitted that dialogue had taken place but Sam Allardyce remained coy about his interest.

In the autumn of 2004, he spurned an opportunity to return to football with League One side, Wallsall, who were then managed by ex-England, Arsenal player and former Villa team mate, Paul Merson. Later speculation linked him with a return to football with Conference side Grays Athletic.

Bosnich has admitted that much of his cocaine problem was due to his relationship with British model Sophie Anderton. He does not regret his actions however, crediting them with being able to help someone in need. "All I did was fall in love with someone and care about them deeply and I put them ahead of everything and so be it... As Martin Luther King said, 'life is not worth living unless you find something worth dying for ... And at that time, for me, that person was more important than football." . His addiction soon worsened; he later said "There was a stage where I got up to 10 grams a day when I was really down in the dumps."

Bosnich provided special comments for the Socceroo's friendly with Nigeria on November 17 alongside Simon Hill on Australia's Fox Sports and subsequently on SBS' coverage of the 2008 FA Cup final.

Career Statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1988-89||Sydney Croatia||NSL||5||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1989-90||rowspan="2"|Manchester United||rowspan="2"|First Division||1||0|||||||| |- |1990-91||2||0|||||||| |- |1991-92||rowspan="8"|Aston Villa||First Division||1||0|||||||| |- |1992-93||rowspan="7"|Premier League||17||0|||||||| |- |1993-94||28||0|||||||| |- |1994-95||30||0|||||||| |- |1995-96||38||0|||||||| |- |1996-97||20||0|||||||| |- |1997-98||30||0|||||||| |- |1998-99||15||0|||||||| |- |1999-00||rowspan="2"|Manchester United||rowspan="2"|Premier League||23||0|||||||| |- |2000-01||0||0|||||||| |- |2000-01||rowspan="3"|Chelsea||rowspan="3"|Premier League||0||0|||||||| |- |2001-02||5||0|||||||| |- |2002-03||0||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3210||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 45||0|||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5215||0|||||||| |}

External links

• Mark Bosnich – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Mark Bosnich at IMDb
• Mark Bosnich at Soccerbase
• Information on player
• Mark Bosnich career stats at OZFootball.net

Footnotes

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