Mark Burton (born 18 May 1974) is a retired

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who represented the

New Zealand national team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

at international level. He played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

Club career

As a teenager, Burton was recommended to

SV Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

by compatriot and New Zealand football legend

Wynton Rufer Wynton Alan Whai Rufer (born 29 December 1962) is a New Zealand retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He spent more than a decade of his professional career in Switzerland and Germany, achieving his greatest success at Werd ...

who played for Bremen at the time. After spending several years in their youth and amateur sides, he moved to lower division teams

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

Kickers Emden BSV Kickers Emden is a Football in Germany, German association football club, located in Emden, Lower Saxony. History The club first began playing in 1928 as a section of the gymnastics club Emder Turnverein, which was founded in 1861. An inde ...

and

VfB Lübeck VfB Lübeck is a German association football club playing in Lübeck, Schleswig-Holstein in the country's north. In addition to its football side the 1,000 member sports club also has departments for badminton, women's gymnastics, handball, and ...

before returning to New Zealand.

International career

Burton played for the

collecting 27 caps and six goals in official

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

internationals between 1996 and 2003. He twice played at the

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

and also twice at the

OFC Nations Cup The OFC Nations Cup is an international association football tournament held among the OFC member nations. It was held every two years from 1996 to 2004; before 1996 there were two other tournaments held at irregular intervals, under the name ...

. At the

2002 OFC Nations Cup The 2002 OFC Nations Cup took place in New Zealand, between 5 and 14 July 2002. The competition was divided into two group stages, with a knockout tournament at the end. Before the tournament, 11 of the nations were seeded according to their 20 ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament Award was presented for the first time, with Burton being deemed the best player of the tournament.

References

External links

Mark Burton Interview

Burton lift for Kingz on road up ladder
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Mark 1974 births Living people Association footballers from Wellington City New Zealand men's association footballers Men's association football midfielders New Zealand men's international footballers 1998 OFC Nations Cup players 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2000 OFC Nations Cup players 2002 OFC Nations Cup players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players National Soccer League (Australia) players Football Kingz FC players VfB Lübeck players SV Werder Bremen II players VfL Osnabrück players Kickers Emden players New Zealand expatriate men's association footballers New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany