Paul Scharner
Personal information
Full name	Paul Josef Herbert Scharner
Date of birth	11 March 1980 (1980-03-11) (age 29)
Place of birth	Scheibbs, Austria
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position	Central Defender, Midfieler
Club information
Current club	Wigan Athletic
Number	7
Youth career
P1987–1993 1993–1996 1996–1998	SVG Purgstall VSE St. Pölten Austria Wien
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2004 2004 2004–2006 2006–	Austria Wien SV Salzburg SK Brann Wigan Athletic	084 0(3) 018 0(3) 032 0(7) 115 (12)
National team2
2002–	Austria U16 Austria U18 Austria U21 Austria	002 0(0) 007 0(0) 012 0(0) 026 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:08, 16 May 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 11 September 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Paul Josef Herbert Scharner (born 11 March 1980 in Scheibbs) is an Austrian footballer, who plays for the English football team Wigan Athletic FC.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career in Austria

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

[edit] Brann

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. All together, his time in Norway was very successful, and soon, clubs from bigger leagues were keen to sign him.

[edit] Wigan Athletic

Scharner signed a 3.5 year deal with Wigan Athletic in 22 December 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. ^[1]

In his first match for Wigan, Scharner scored the winning goal against Arsenal in the Carling Cup. He went on to start in the final for Wigan that season

On 22 March he became the first Wigan Athletic player to play 100 Premier League games which he played against Hull City.

On 30 August 2009 he scored his first goal of the season against Everton. After a 5-0 defeat to Manchester United, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has preferred to use Scharner in an attacking midfield role.

[edit] International career

Scharner retired from playing international football for his country after falling out with the Austrian FA (ÖFB). He 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 head coach Josef Hickersberger regarding a possible return, but didn't show up in the Austrian 31-player preselection for the UEFA Euro 2008. Scharner made his comeback under the new coach Karel Brückner in August 2008.

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Honours

Austria Wien

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

SK Brann

• Norwegian Cup (1): 2004

Wigan Athletic

• League Cup Runner up: 2006

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Paul Scharner career stats at Soccerbase
• Official site (German)
• Player profile - Austria Archive
• Career stats - National Football Teams