Kevin Muscat

Kevin Muscat

Personal information
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Melbourne Victory
Number	2
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of November 18, 2006

Kevin Vincent Muscat (born 7 August 1973 in Crawley, England) is an Australian football (soccer) player, who currently plays for and is captain of Melbourne Victory in the Australian Hyundai A-League. He is of Maltese background.

Career

Muscat made his international debut for Australia on the 24 September, 1994 against Kuwait. He represented Australia in the U/23 football competition in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. He also represented Australia in the U/20 1993 World Youth Cup Finals in Australia. When playing for Australia in 2001, they faced Uruguay in a playoff for a spot in the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In the first leg in Melbourne, Australia won 1-0 thanks to a penalty from Kevin Muscat. However Australia went down 3-0 in Montevideo to miss out on qualifying for the World Cup.

He has spent most of his career in Britain, playing for Crystal Palace, Wolves, Rangers and Millwall. In 2004, he captained Millwall to the FA Cup Final for the first time in their history. Unfortunately he missed the final itself, after suffering a knee ligament injury in the semi-final against Sunderland. He left Millwall for a return to Australia to become Melbourne Victory's inaugural captain in the 2005/6 season.

Under Victory manager Ernie Merrick, Muscat, who has been known as a defender for virtually his entire career, has moved to the midfield for the 2006-7 season. Muscat's new role, a surprising change for a player in the latter part of his career, has been credited as a major source of the team's much improved results. [1]. Muscat, as the team's designated penalty-taker, has also found himself amongst the league's leading goal-scorers and is a chance to become an unlikely winner of the league "golden boot award".

Despite being a regular in the Australian national team, Muscat found himself dropped from the squad when coach Guus Hiddink took over in 2005. He played no part in Australia's qualification for the World Cup and was shattered to find himself out of the squad for Australia's first World Cup appearance in 32 years, in 2006.

In August 2006, Muscat was given a lifeline back into the national team. Lacking experienced players for the Asian Cup qualifier against Kuwait, coach Graham Arnold recalled Kevin Muscat and handed him the captaincy. Australia won the match 2-0 to qualify for the 2007 Asian Cup.

Reputation

Kev was branded a “lowlife” and a “nobody” by Ian Wright after an incident which occurred when the former Arsenal and England striker was on loan at Nottingham Forest in September 1999. Wright claimed he was about to shoot when he heard strike partner Dougie Freedman yell “leave it” from behind him, and so unselfishly stepped over the ball only to see a grinning Muscat, whose ventriloquistic prowess had not been previously noted, spirit it out of danger.

Muscat has a reputation as a football 'hard man', and was dubbed the "most hated man in football" by then Birmingham City player Martin Grainger in 2000. This was due to his many encounters with opposing players with the view being that he was unnecessarily physical and dirty in his play.

He has previously seriously injured both Craig Bellamy and Christophe Dugarry, the latter in a friendly international between Australia and France in 2001 with a sliding tackle from behind. The French manager Roger Lemerre dubbed the tackle "an act of brutality", particularly given the friendly status of the match which was designed to prepare Australia for the two-legged playoff against Uruguay. Dugarry was sidelined with a serious knee ligament injury for several months.

In 2004, a lawsuit on Muscat brought by former Charlton player Matt Holmes resulted in a settlement of £250,000 plus costs in favour of Holmes, bringing the estimated settlement to around £750,000. Holmes had to have four operations on his leg following a tackle by Muscat in 1998, and there were initial fears that his leg might have to be amputated. The claim was settled at the High Court without any admission of liability.

In December 2005, he was banned for 3 matches by the A-league disciplinary panel on grounds of "violent conduct", the first player to be suspended in such a manner.

During his time at Rangers, he was never selected for inclusion in an Old Firm encounter, due to the tense and aggressive nature of the match.

On Sunday the 15 October 2006 Muscat was involved in an incident with Adelaide United coach John Kosmina. Muscat entered Adelaide's technical area and knocked Kosmina over while he was retrieving the ball from under his chair. Kosmina responded by grabbing Muscat by the throat. Kosmina was sent to the stands and Muscat received a yellow card. Kosmina was later suspended for a further four matches.

As of November 2006, Muscat has been suspended twice in the A-League 2006-07 season for four yellow cards and a red card.

References

• Holmes awarded £250,000 (BBC)
• Socceroo's $606,000 payout (The Age)
• Lemerre condemns Muscat tackle as 'act of brutality' (Soccernet)
• Fifa World Cup Profile
• "Melbourne Victory > Player Profiles – Kevin Muscat". Retrieved Oct 11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
• "Kevin Muscat". Soccerbase. Retrieved Aug 22. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)