Mark John Byrnes (born 8 February 1982) is an Australian
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who plays for
APIA Leichhardt Tigers in the
New South Wales Premier League
The National Premier Leagues NSW is a semi-professional soccer competition in New South Wales, Australia. The competition is conducted by Football NSW, the organising body in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier Leagues Norther ...
.
Club career
After a short stint with
SV Salzburg in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
, he won two
NSL championship medals in a row with
Perth Glory.
Due to the demise of the
National Soccer League after the 2003/2004 season, in July of that year he signed with Finnish club,
FC Hämeenlinna. He returned to Australia to form part of
Melbourne Victory
Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victor ...
's
A-League 2005–06
A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...
squad, but found his chances limited by the emergence of younger defenders
Adrian Leijer and
Daniel Piorkowski. He was part of Melbourne's A-League championship winning side in 2006–2007. However at the end of the season, on 1 March 2007, he was released by the club.
In 2007, he was announced as a short term signing for
Victorian Premier League
The National Premier Leagues Victoria, commonly known as NPL Victoria, is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer lea ...
side
Richmond Eagles for three matches.
In 2008, Byrnes went on trial with English lower league football clubs Port Vale and Luton Town. He impressed during an overseas pre-season tour to the extent that he would have been offered a contract had he not suffered a minor injury during the last tour match.
On 23 September 2009 he was signed by
Gold Coast United
Gold Coast United Football Club is an Australian soccer club based in Gold Coast, Queensland. The earliest incarnation of the club formed in 1966 and its home ground was at Nikiforides Family Park in Broadbeach. The first era of Gold Coast Unit ...
as a four-week injury replacement for
Daniel Piorkowski.
Bleiberg signs injury cover for Piorkowski
International career
He was captain of the Australian Under-17 team which reached the final of the 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship.
Honours
With Australia:
* FIFA U-17 World Championship
The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fédération ...
: 1999
File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...
(Runners-up)
With Perth Glory:
* NSL Championship: 2002–03, 2003–04
References
External links
OzFootball profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrnes, Mark
1982 births
Living people
Sportsmen from New South Wales
Australian people of Irish descent
Association football defenders
Australian expatriate soccer players
Expatriate footballers in Austria
Expatriate footballers in Italy
Expatriate footballers in Finland
A-League Men players
National Soccer League (Australia) players
Austrian Football Bundesliga players
Veikkausliiga players
FC Hämeenlinna players
FC Red Bull Salzburg players
Melbourne Victory FC players
Parramatta Power players
Perth Glory FC players
Sydney Olympic FC players
New South Wales Institute of Sport alumni
Gold Coast United FC players
Soccer players from Sydney
Australian soccer players