By Thomas Rooney – A sports writer who blogs about football betting
Former Manchester United keeper Mark Bosnich has turned down the chance to join Australian A-League side Wellington Phoenix. It is thought that the club couldn’t guarantee him a starting place and that this was the deal-breaker.
Bosnich – who made 17 appearances for the Australian national team between 1993 and 2000 – was in talks with Wellington over a proposed move last week. The agreement was set to be that Bosnich would fill in for the Mark Paston as he recovered from a rib injury.
However, Wellington announced yesterday that they had signed Gold Coast United’s Scott Higgins instead and this raised questions about what had happened to Bosnich joining the club.
Speaking about the issue, Phoenix chief executive Tony Pignata revealed that Bosnich had opted out of the move at the last minute because the club were unable to provide him with the starting keeper’s spot. This obviously wasn’t satisfactory for a man who had played Premier League football in England.
Instead, Glen Moss will be between the sticks for Wellington as they take on Perth Glory on Saturday night. Pignata admitted that Bosnich would have only been a ‘back up’ if he joined because Moss is their number one keeper.
So, where does this leave Mark Bosnich? Well, he is still without a club since his seven week stint at the Central Coast Mariners where he made four appearances. Not exactly where we would have expected him to be after making his professional debut with Sydney Croatia 20 years ago is it?
It is a shame that so many personal problems got in the way of a talented goalkeeper having the career he should have done. At Aston Villa in particular, Bosnich showed that he could be a world-class performer.
He made 227 appearances for the Premier League club and looking back, it was probably a bad decision to leave them. He was their number one when he left for Manchester United in 1999 and this was a move that never really worked out for him. Neither did the brief stint at Chelsea in 2001.
Overall, it is worth considering whether things would have been different for Bosnich had he never left Aston Villa. Perhaps he would have made more than 17 international appearances? Perhaps he wouldn’t have had five years out of the game all together? Perhaps he wouldn’t be considered as a back-up for an Australian A-League side right know?
Who knows!
