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Brilliant, humble, a team player. Mark Bresicano has called time on his international football career and will be remembered as one of the Australia’s greatest footballers.
‘Bresc’ never got the headlines he deserved, not in the way Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Tim Cahill or even John Aloisi did.
But he was always there, tinkering away, consistently one of our best players, for the past 14 years.
His debut was a memorable one, an upset win over then world champions France back in 2001. Since then he has become an integral member of the Socceroos line-up.
He scored that goal against Uruguay in 2005, the strike that made Aloisi’s match-winning penalty and the 2006 World Cup journey possible. He scored a scissor-kick screamer against Bahrain in 2006. He scored an audacious 35-metre volley against Scotland in 2012.
Here’s some of his finest for club and country.
His 13 goals in 84 caps don’t properly tell the Bresciano story. He had a penchant for the freakish, the amazing, the goal few players could score or the free-kick that only he in the green and gold could hit.
Here is a player who came through the AIS and NSL ranks to conquer one of Europe’s toughest leagues. Frank Farina and Paul Okon may have paved the way for Australians to play Serie A, but Bresc and his best mate Vince Grella proved that we could cut it with Italy’s best.
He was versatile, skilful, technically excellent, a different breed to the usual breed of athletes and fighters that Australian football produces.
Comfortable on the ball, able to beat players, a fine passer, the man was a thinker, an artist.
Small of build, stocky and with that chrome-dome look, Bresciano was one of the first names put down on any Socceroo team-sheet for over a decade. You could put him on the left, in the centre of midfield, in the hole or even up front and he could do a job.
It wasn’t surprising that Bresciano was one of the veteran players Ange Postecoglou wanted to keep on when he took charge of the Socceroos in 2013.
Quietly spoken, the ex-Parma and Palermo midfielder has always been respected as a leader and true professional in his own reserved way. Young members of the Socceroos squad looked up to him. He was a link to the past, someone who had done the hard yards with the national team before qualifying for World Cups became expected and FFA took over.
He also had a lot left to give, as shown in Brazil and the most recent Asian Cup. While his game-time was limited in January, his role was still important. He retires as an Asian champion, something that is full deserved.
I was fortunate enough to interview Bresciano during the Asian Cup and he was respectful, intelligent, geniune and articulate – something you could not say the same about for all players with similar experience and stature in the game.
Vince Grella recently said that his old Carlton, Empoli, Parma and Australian teammate was the best footballer we ever produced. Grella might be a tad biased, but the Melbourne product definitely deserves to be mentioned in the upper echelon.
Few players had Bresciano’s impact on the national team – his important goals, his leadership, his longevity, his versatility, his skill-set, his professionalism and his moments of individual brilliance.
Whether he ate the chicken or the fish, Mark ‘Marco’ Bresciano will be sorely missed.
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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