Jürgen Macho (born 24 August 1977) is an Austrian football coach and former

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

who is goalkeeper coach of

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

. During his playing career, he kept goal at several clubs across Austria, England, Germany and Greece.

Club career

Macho started his first-team career with

Wiener Sport-Club The Wiener Sport-Club, sometimes abbreviated as WSC, was established in 1883 in Vienna, Austria and is one of the country's oldest athletics clubs. Their traditional home is in the Dornbach quarter of the city ( 17th district). History At vari ...

in 1996, and moved after one season to

First Vienna FC First Vienna FC is an Austrian football club based in the Döbling district of Vienna. Established on 22 August 1894, it is the country's oldest team and has played a notable role in the history of the game there. It is familiarly known to Aust ...

, where he spent three seasons before leaving for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

in 2000. At Sunderland, Macho spent three seasons as the second-choice keeper, behind Danish international

Thomas Sørensen Thomas Løvendahl Sørensen (; born 12 June 1976) is a Danish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Sørensen started his career with his local side Odense BK. After impressing on loan at Vejle Boldklub and Svendborg he wa ...

, and managed a total of 22 league appearances. He then transferred to Chelsea for the 2003–04 season, but was mostly fourth-choice there. He suffered a serious season-long injury, and subsequently failed to make a single competitive appearance with the team. In August 2004, having been released from the remaining year of his Chelsea contract, Macho left the club to join

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

side

, on what was scheduled to be a year-long loan deal. However, he spent just four months there, managing eight league appearances, as well as two in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. In January 2005, Macho joined Germany's

1. FC Kaiserslautern 1. Fußball-Club Kaiserslautern e. V., also known as 1. FCK, FCK (), FC Kaiserslautern (), K'lautern or colloquially Lautern (), is a German sports club based in Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Palatinate. In addition to Association football, football ...

, where he first spent six months as the third-choice, behind

Tim Wiese Tim Wiese (; born 17 December 1981) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Having progressed through the youth teams at DJK Dürscheid and Bayer Leverkusen, Wiese started his professional career at Fortuna Köln, ...

and Thomas Ernst. However, he managed to become the starter in 2005–06, as Wiese left for

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. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

. He subsequently made a total of 20 league appearances that season, but missed nearly the entire second part of the season due to an injury. He continued to be Kaiserslautern's main goalkeeper during 2006–07, with the team now in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

, to where it was relegated after finishing 16th in the topflight the previous season, being one of those to blame for the team’s poor results. On 31 August 2007, Macho joined

AEK Athens A.E.K. (; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a major Greek multi-sport club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica. The club is more commonly known in European competitions as A.E.K. Athens. Establishe ...

in Greece. He was soon selected as the team's first-choice goalkeeper, ahead of Brazilian Marcelo Moretto. On 26 March 2009, it was announced he would be released from contract after it expired in June. Macho was in training with Premier League's

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

in view to a permanent move, but the transfer was cancelled on 29 September 2009. On 5 November 2009, after a few months without a club, Macho returned to his country after five years, signing with

LASK Linzer Athletik-Sport-Klub, commonly known as LASK (), or Linzer ASK, is an Austrian professional football club based in Upper-Austrian state capital Linz. It is the oldest football club in that region, and plays in the Austrian Football Bundes ...

. At the end of the season, however, he moved to Greece again, joining

Panionios GSS Panionios G.S.S. (Greek: Πανιώνιος Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Σμύρνης, ''Panionios Gymnastikos Syllogos Smyrnis''), the ''Pan-Ionian Gymnastics Club of Smyrna'', is a Greek multi-sport club founded in 1890. Originally ...

International career

Macho made his debut for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in 2002, going on to amass 26 internationals, including two

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

qualifiers in October 2005. On 16 November 2007, in a friendly against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, he swallowed his tongue after a collision with

Peter Crouch Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. He was Cap (sport), capped 42 times by the England national football t ...

. His life was saved by Austria's chief medic. In

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

, Macho played all three group stage matches for the hosts, in an eventual group stage exit.

Honours

: ** Austrian League: 2004–05

References

External links

*
Rapid Wien archives
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Macho, Jurgen 1977 births Living people Footballers from Vienna Austrian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Austrian Football Bundesliga players Premier League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Super League Greece players Wiener Sport-Club players First Vienna FC players SK Rapid Wien players LASK players Sunderland A.F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players 1. FC Kaiserslautern players AEK Athens F.C. players Panionios F.C. players Admira Wacker players Austria men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2008 players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Austrian expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Austrian expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Greece