Jürgen Macho

Infobox Football biography
playername = Jürgen Macho


fullname = Jürgen Macho
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1977|8|24
cityofbirth = Vienna
countryofbirth = Austria
height = height|m=1.93
position = Goalkeeper
currentclub = AEK Athens
clubnumber = 77
contractend = June 30, 2009
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1996–1997
1997–2000
2000–2003
2003–2004
2004
2005–2007
2007–
clubs = Wiener Sportclub
First Vienna
Sunderland
Chelsea
Rapid Vienna
FC Kaiserslautern
AEK Athens
"Total"
caps(goals) =
019 (0)
022 (0)
000 (0)
008 (0)
054 (0)
021 (0)
"124 (0)"
nationalyears =
2002–
nationalteam = Austria U21
Austria
nationalcaps(goals) = 013 (0)
017 (0)
pcupdate = 00:33, 17 July 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 17:33, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Jürgen Macho (born August 24, 1977 in Vienna) is an Austrian football goalkeeper who currently plays for AEK Athens FC.

Club career

Macho started his first-team career with Wiener Sportclub in 1996 and moved after one season to First Vienna FC, where he spent three seasons before leaving for English Premiership side Sunderland A.F.C. in 2000.

At Sunderland, Macho spent three seasons as the second-choice keeper, behind Danish international Thomas Sørensen, and managed a total of 22 league appearances. He then transferred to Chelsea F.C. 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 side SK Rapid Wien, on what was scheduled to be a year-long loan deal. [cite news
title = Rapid seal Macho loan deal
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/chelsea/3572398.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2004-08-17
accessdate = 2008-06-16] However, he spent just four months there, managing eight league appearances, as well as two in the UEFA Cup.

In January 2005, Macho joined German Bundesliga side 1. FC Kaiserslautern, where he first spent six months as the third-choice keeper behind Tim Wiese and Thomas Ernst. However, he managed to become first-choice for the 2005-06 season, as Wiese left for Werder Bremen. 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, to where it was relegated after finishing 16th in the top flight the previous season.

On August 31, 2007, Macho joined AEK Athens F.C. in Greece. He was soon selected as the side's first-choice, ahead of Brazilian Marcelo Moretto, who failed to impress.

International career

Since February 2005, Macho has 17 international caps for the Austrian national team, including two 2006 World Cup qualifiers in October 2005.

On November 16, 2007, in a friendly against England, he swallowed his tongue after a collision with Peter Crouch. His life was saved by Austria's chief medic.

Macho played all three group stage matches in the Austrian squad at Euro 2008.

Honours

*Austrian League: 2004-05

References

External links

* [http://www.aekfc.gr/index.asp?a_id=322&p_id=137 AEK Athens profile]
* [http://www.fussballdaten.de/spieler/machojuergen/ Stats at Fussballdaten.de] de icon
* [http://rapidarchiv.at/spieler/macho_juergen.html Rapid Wien stats] de icon
* [http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/players/player=23828/index.html EURO 2008 profile]
*soccerbase|id=21003|name=Jurgen Macho
* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=8916 NationalFootballTeams data]