his home country of England to Australia. While finding his feet, Megs befriends a quirky Hungarian cleaner who works at the primary school. The novel saw success and was followed by four sequels: "Megs, Scarves and Sombreros," "Megs and the Complete Left Foot," "Megs and the Crazy Legs," and "Megs and the Wonder Strike." After rejecting offers from A-League clubs Sydney FC and Perth Glory in 2016, Schwarzer retired at age 43, joining Optus Sport as a panellist via video link on the now defunct Countdown to Kickoff program. Schwarzer was later involved in the network's coverage of UEFA Euro 2020, and regularly appears as a guest on the station's GegenPod podcast. He also published non-football article on The Sydney Morning Herald on behalf with other author. Schwarzer's son, Julian, is a goalkeeper for the Filipino club Azkals Development Team. As Schwarzer's wife (Julian's mother) has Filipino nationality, the younger Schwarzer is eligible to play for the Philippines national football team. Club career Early career Schwarzer's first club was Colo Cougars in Richmond, New South Wales. He started his professional career at age 19 with Marconi Stallions in the National Soccer League. He left the Sydney-based club to play in Germany in 1994 with Dynamo Dresden and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He then travelled to England to play for Bradford City in 1996, where he eventually joined Middlesbrough in February 1997. Middlesbrough Schwarzer made his debut for Middlesbrough against Stockport County in the League Cup semi-finals on 26 February 1997. He featured in the final against Leicester City, which ended as a 1–1 draw, but was injured for the replay. He also played in the 1998 League Cup final against Chelsea, but was unable to prevent Middlesbrough from slipping to a 2–0 defeat. He was part of the side, however, who beat Bolton Wanderers 2–1 to win the final six years later, despite making an error described by BBC Sport as a "howler" which allowed Kevin Davies a consolation goal for Bolton. In the last match of the 2004–05 season against Manchester City, he saved a Robbie Fowler penalty in stoppage time to preserve a 1–1 draw. The draw was sufficient to put Middlesbrough in seventh in the final league table and ensure qualification for the UEFA Cup; had Fowler converted the penalty, Manchester City would have qualified for the UEFA Cup at Middlesbrough's expense. Schwarzer was granted a transfer request