If 40-year-old Mark Schwarzer wants to return home, there’s a nice Australian Marquee spot open for him with the Western Sydney Wanderers. Last year’s regular season champions may be league owned, and Western Sydney may be slightly distinct from Schwarzer’s home town of Sydney, but if the former Fulham man is looking for a cushy landing spot to play out the rest of his days, he could do worse than land next to Tony Popovic and Shinji Ono with the Wanderers.
That the Premier League stalwart is, in fact, a former Cottager was confirmed today. Having turned down a new deal in the wake of Fulham’s summer acquisition of Dutch international Maarten Stekelenburg, Schwarzer’s set to take his 16 seasons and 502 appearances worth of experience elsewhere. While he’s the only international player to ever cross the 500-appearance mark in the Premier League, it’s unclear he’ll get the add to his total, with few teams able to offer more than Fulham’s backup role to a man who turns 41 on October 6.
Also leaving Craven Cottage is Simon Davies, who was the longest tenured player at Fulham until his contract expired on Sunday. Davies, probably best known for his contributions during Fulham’s run to the 2009-10 Europa League final, had been with the club since 2007 but had seen playing time wane since the departure of Roy Hodgson.
Perhaps a slightly more surprising departure is that of Chris Baird, though with Sascha Riether having emerged at his right back position, the Northern Ireland international may be seeking first team opportunities elsewhere.
Giorgos Karagounis, the 125-time Greece international who arrived in London just after the start of last season, is also leaving the club. In his one season at Craven Cottage, the 36-year-old made 25 appearances, scoring once.
And perhaps the least renown departure will be Csaba Somogyi. The Hungarian goalkeeper was Martin Jol’s first signing two years ago but never made a first team appearance.
