Paul Scharner

Football player infobox
playername = Paul Scharner


fullname = Paul Josef Herbert Scharner
nickname = "Pauli"
dateofbirth = birth date |1980|3|11 (age 28)
cityofbirth = Scheibbs
countryofbirth = Austria
height = height|m=1.91
currentclub = Wigan Athletic
position = Central Defender/ Midfield
youthyears = P1987–1993
1993–1996
1996–1998
youthclubs = SVG Purgstall
VSE St. Pölten
Austria Wien
years = 1998–2004
2004
2004–2006
2006–
clubs = Austria Wien
SV Salzburg
SK Brann
Wigan Athletic
clubnumber = 7
caps(goals) = 84 0(3)
18 0(3)
32 0(7)
78 (10)
nationalyears =
2002–
nationalteam = Austria U-16
Austria U-18
Austria U-21
Austria
nationalcaps(goals) = 2 0(0)
7 0(0)
12 0(0)
18 0(0)
pcupdate = 19:38, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 11 September 2008 (UTC)

Paul Josef Herbert Scharner (born March 11, 1980 in Scheibbs) is an Austrian footballer. He was originally used as a midfielder, earning caps for the Austrian national team, but since late 2005 he has been utilised as a central defender for his club team Wigan Athletic.

Club career

In the Austrian Bundesliga, Paul Scharner played for Austria Wien and SV Salzburg, before joining Norwegian club SK Brann in 2004.

He was voted player of the year by the Brann fans in 2005, and one of the best players on all the major player rankings in Norwegian newspapers and TV channels in 2005.

Scharner signed a 3.5 year deal with Wigan Athletic in December 22, 2005, and joined the squad after the holidays. Wigan agreed a fee of £2,500,000 (€3,700,000, 29,500,000 NOK), making it the biggest transfer in SK Brann's history. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/w/wigan_athletic/4545980.stm Wigan complete deal for Scharner ] - BBC]

In his first match for Wigan, Scharner scored the winning goal against Arsenal in the Carling Cup.

International career

Scharner has retired from playing international football for his country Austria, after falling out with the Austrian FA(ÖFB). He has labelled the set-up a shambles and blamed the unprofessional set-up of the national FA as the reason behind his decision.

In 2008 he showed interest in returning to the Austrian squad, and also had a personal meeting with Austrian headcoach Josef Hickersberger regarding a possible return, but didn't show up in the Austrian 31-player preselection for the UEFA Euro 2008 . Paul Scharner made his comeback for the Austrian National Team under the new coach Karel Brückner in August 2008.

Honours

flagicon|England England

*English League Cup runner up 2006

flagicon|Norway Norway

*Norwegian Cup (1):
** 2004

flagicon|Austria Austria

*Austrian Football Bundesliga (1):
** 2003
*Austrian Cup (1):
** 2003

External links

*soccerbase|id=30825|name=Paul Scharner
* [http://www.paulscharner.at Official site] de icon
* [http://www.austria-archiv.at/spieler.php?Spieler_ID=13 Player profile] - Austria Archive
* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=519 Career stats] - National Football Teams

References

Persondata
NAME= Scharner, Paul Josef Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Scharner, Paul
SHORT DESCRIPTION= footballer
DATE OF BIRTH= 1980-3-11
PLACE OF BIRTH= Scheibbs , Austria
DATE OF DEATH= 2008-3-16
PLACE OF DEATH= Wigan , England