The road to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil starts today for Mark Schwarzer and his Australian team-mates when they face Thailand in the opening match of their qualification campaign in Brisbane.
As he recently explained to fulhamfc.com, the Fulham keeper has set his sights firmly on taking part in the 2014 World Cup.
“After the last World Cup I had a discussion with the new manager [Holger Osieck] who came in with regards to my future and how he saw my future going,” Schwarzer explained. “I expressed my thoughts on the whole situation and left it down to him.
“He expressed his desire for me to continue playing. He’s fully committed to the plans for me to be involved in the future and be part of it - but the bottom line is you have to perform. As long as I can juggle the two of them [club and international football], which I’ve done for 15 odd years, and it doesn’t affect my club football then why would I want to stop?”