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 lea ...

who plays for

APIA Leichhardt Tigers APIA Leichhardt Football Club, also known simply as APIA (Associazione Poli-sportiva Italo Australiana), is a semi-professional soccer club based in the suburb of Leichhardt, New South Wales, Leichhardt in Sydney, Australia. The club was forme ...

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, one of the two organising bodies in New South Wales (the other being the National Premier L ...

Club career

After a short stint with SV Salzburg in

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 ...

, he won two NSL championship medals in a row with

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

. Due to the demise of the

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

after the 2003/2004 season, in July of that year he signed with Finnish club,

FC Hämeenlinna FC Hämeenlinna is a Finnish football club, based in Hämeenlinna. The club's manager is Tomi Uusitorppa, and it plays its home matches at Kauriala. The team was formed in 1991. Club's history Initial years FC Hämeenlinna was founded in a ...

. 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), Victory ...

's A-League 2005–06 squad, but found his chances limited by the emergence of younger defenders

Adrian Leijer Adrian Leijer (born 25 March 1986) is an Australian footballer who plays as a centre back. Leijer played on one occasion for Australia and made over 100 appearances for Melbourne Victory in the A-League. Club career Early years Leijer was born ...

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 Victorian Premier League (VPL) is an Australian soccer league based in Victoria that was founded in 2023 and administered by Football Victoria. It consists of two divisions that were named after the VPL's breakaway of the National Premier L ...

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 as a four-week injury replacement for Daniel Piorkowski.

International career

He was captain of the Australian Under-17 team which reached the final of the

1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship The 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship, the eighth edition of the tournament, was held in the cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Napier, and Dunedin in New Zealand from 10 to 27 November 1999. Players born after 1 January 1982 could participate in ...

Honours

Perth Glory * NSL Championship: 2002–03, 2003–04 Australia U-20 *

OFC U-19 Men's Championship The OFC U-19 Championship is a tournament held once every two years to decide the under-19 champions of Oceania and also decides who will represent Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) at the biennial FIFA U-20 World Cup. Between 1974 and 2012, t ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

Australia U-17: *

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 annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

(Runners-up)

References

External links

OzFootball profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrnes, Mark 1982 births Living people Sportsmen from New South Wales Australian people of Irish descent Men's association football defenders Australian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's 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 SC 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 men's soccer players 21st-century Australian sportsmen