Patrick Kisnorbo

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Patrick Kisnorbo
Personal information
Full name	Patrick Fabio Maxime Kisnorbo[1][2]
Date of birth	24 March 1981 (1981-03-24) (age 28)
Place of birth	Melbourne, Australia
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[3]
Playing position	Centre Back, Midfielder
Youth career
1996–1997 1997 1997–1998 1998–2000	St. Bernard's College Essendon City Bulleen South Melbourne
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2000–2003 2003–2005 2005–2009	South Melbourne Hearts Leicester City	067 0(3) 048 0(1) 126 (10)
National team2
2001 2003–2004 2002–	Australia U20 Australia U23 Australia	014 0(1) 003 0(0) 014 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 06:11, 5 April 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 12:09, 6 April 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Patrick Fabio Maxime Kisnorbo^[1][2] (born 24 March 1981) is an Australian footballer of Mauritian^[4] and Italian heritage,^[5] currently unattached after having been released by Leicester City on 29 May 2009.^[6]

Kisnorbo, who carries an Italian passport, can play in midfield or defence, but regularly plays at centre back.^[5] He was a fans' favourite at Leicester City, having played there for four years, accumulating over a hundred appearances.^[7] During his time with Leicester, he was at the centre of a number of controversies relating to refereeing. This involved plays involving him that had officiating calls that were later shown to be wrong. He has also suffered some injuries that affected his playing ability for a time. Kisnorbo has represented the Socceroos at the international level in three tournaments; the 2002 and 2004 Oceania Nations (OFC) Cups and the 2007 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. He started his professional career at South Melbourne and later played for the Scottish club Hearts before joining Leicester.

[edit] Early life

Patrick Kisnorbo was born in Melbourne, County of Bourke, to a Mauritian father and an Italian mother from Trieste.^[4] Because of his mother's birth, Kisnorbo holds an Italian passport, which allows him to bypass European Union restrictions under the Bosman ruling.^[5]

[edit] Career

Kisnorbo began playing football as a youth in his hometown with Essendon City and Bulleen. He then played in the South Melbourne youth team for two seasons before being selected for the senior team, which was competing in the now defunct National Soccer League.^[8]

[edit] Hearts

Following the collapse of the Australian National Soccer League, he made his move from South Melbourne Football Club (FC) to the Edinburgh-based Scottish Premier League club Hearts in July 2003, signing a two-year contract. He was recommended to Hearts by former player Dave McPherson.^[9] Kisnorbo quickly became a regular for the first team where he made 48 appearances in two seasons, scoring his only league goal in a 2–1 win over Hibernian on 24 October 2004.^[10]

Kisnorbo also played in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Cup against such clubs as Bordeaux,^[11] Feyenoord, FC Schalke and Ferencváros,^[12] and scored a goal against Portuguese club SC (Sporting Club) Braga.^[13] He spent 18 months at Hearts, playing a total of 64 competitive games, before his contract expired at the end of the 2004–05 season. It was not renewed by the club.^[14]

[edit] Leicester City

Kisnorbo joined Leicester City in April 2005 after leaving Hearts,^[15] signing a pre-contract agreement in January.^[16] He followed former Hearts boss Craig Levein, teammates Mark de Vries and Alan Maybury across the border to the Midlands club.^[5]

Kisnorbo's first goal for Leicester came on 15 October 2005 against Watford at Vicarage Road, which turned out to be the match winner.^[17] His initial appearances for Leicester were as a midfielder, and at first he failed to adjust and was booed by his own fans during a 2–1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.^[7] However, a move back to defence resulted in a change in fortunes for Kisnorbo, and his partnership with then-teammate Paddy McCarthy was instrumental in helping Leicester avoid relegation to League One that season.^[18][19]

Transfer speculation linked Kisnorbo to Wigan Athletic at the end of the 2005–06 season season, but he decided to extend his stay with Leicester by signing a new three-year contract,^[20] less than 12 months after joining the club.^[21] Kisnorbo began the 2006–07 season well, scoring two goals and putting in fine rear-guard displays against Coventry and Southend, helping the club survive relegation yet again. He was linked with a move to Fulham during the January transfer window.^[22] His performance in the 2006–07 season earned him the players' player of the season award from his teammates. It was also at this point that he became a fan favourite.^[23]

[edit] 2007–08 season

In the 2007–08 season, Kisnorbo was relegated to League One with the club, but was also on the receiving end of no more than three controversial refereeing decisions. His first was a goal against Scunthorpe United on 20 October, which referee Scott Mathieson ruled out for an offside, depriving Leicester of an away win.^[24] Video replay showed that Kisnorbo's disallowed goal was actually onside, greatly frustrating him,^[25] while Leicester coach Gerry Taggart commented "We have all seen the replay of Patrick's goal in the dressing room and he is clearly not offside."^[26] Kisnorbo's second was a red card by referee Phil Joslin for what the linesman claimed was a foul on Pablo Couñago. Joslin awarded Ipswich Town a penalty kick, and Ipswich won 3–1.^[27] Joslin admitted his mistake,^[28] and had the ban rescinded the following day after video replays showed Kisnorbo actually won the ball outside the penalty area.^[29] Leicester's then-manager Ian Holloway described the sending off as a "complete kerfuffle."^[28] The Leicester club was fined £3,000 by The Football Association, however, because of Kisnorbo's teammates angry appeals to Joslin during the game.^[30] Kisnorbo's third was another red card by referee Mike Pike for a foul on Billy Sharp on 5 April 2008. Pike awarded Sheffield United a penalty kick as they won 3–0.^[31] Video replays, however, showed no contact between the two, confirming that Sharp was diving. Holloway branded Pike's decision "embarrassing", saying "that was the biggest blunder I've seen in a long time."^[32] Leicester also succeeded in their appeal against the second red card.^[33]

Further misfortune came when Kisnorbo suffered damaged knee ligaments in 3–1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on 26 April 2008,^[34] sidelining him for six months.^[35] His injury badly affected Leicester's hopes of surviving in the Championship.^[5] He played his 100th game and scored his last ever goal for Leicester in a 2–0 home win over Ipswich on 26 December 2007.^[36]

[edit] 2008–09 season

Kisnorbo returned to action the following season in a 3-0 reserve team win over Rushden and Diamonds on 2 October.^[37] He later returned for the first team coming on as a substitute in a 1–1 draw against Oldham Athletic on 18 October 2008.^[38] However, he was struck with another ligament injury to his other knee in a 3–0 FA Cup win over Stevenage Borough on 9 November, putting him out for two more months.^[39] Kisnorbo made his competitive return as a second half substitute in a 1–0 win over Millwall on 14 March 2009,^[40] but by then was facing competition in the first team from teammates Wayne Brown, Jack Hobbs, Michael Morrison and Aleksandar Tunchev.^[7] He started just three games in the second half of the season, which saw the club secure their promotion as League One champions.^[41]

It was reported on 28 April that manager Nigel Pearson told Kisnorbo he could leave on a free transfer the following summer as the club began their preparations for their Championship campaign the following season.^[42] Leicester on 29 May 29 released Kisnorbo at the end of his contract, along with Paul Henderson, Marc Edworthy, Bruno N'Gotty and Barry Hayles.^[6] Kisnorbo stated he was "very disappointed to have been released",^[43] and made it clear that he wanted "to show Leicester next season what they are missing because I'm desperate to stay in the Championship."^[41] He went on trial with Crystal Palace, and later had another trial with Leicester's local rivals Derby County.^[44]

[edit] International career

Kisnorbo was part of Australia's 2001 Youth World Cup campaign, playing five matches for the Young Socceroos in Oceania qualifiers,^[45] including a goal against Papua New Guinea.^[46] He remained on the squad for the finals, appearing in all the matches leading up to Australia's second-round elimination at the hands of Brazil.^[47] His performances in the under-20 level led to his first international appearance on 6 July 2002 against Vanuatu in Australia's first match of the 2002 OFC Nations Cup.^[48] He made three appearances in the tournament including the defeat to New Zealand in the final.^[48]

In 2004 Kisnorbo was again selected for the squad for the Oceania Cup. In Australia's last group match against Solomon Islands he was sent off for receiving two yellow cards, ending his tournament.^[49] He declined to join the Olyroos squad for an Olympic preparation tour in July, electing to concentrate on cementing a place at Hearts F.C. in the pre-season.^[50] This decision harmed his national team aspirations, as he was left out of the squad that eventually lost to Iraq in the quarter-finals.^[51][52]

Kisnorbo made appearances for the Socceroos in friendlies against Ghana, Denmark, China and Uruguay. These performances led to his selection for the Australian Asian Cup squad,^[53] playing in the first two group matches against Oman^[54] and Iraq.^[55] After Australia tied the first match and lost the second, Kisnorbo was dropped from the starting line-up amongst a host of changes.^[56] He played no further part in the tournament as Australia were eventually knocked out by Japan.^[57]

[edit] Honours

Australia

• OFC Nations Cup: 2002 (runner-up)

Leicester City

• League One: Winner 2008–09

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Leicester City profile
• FFA - Socceroo profile
• OzFootball profile
• Patrick Kisnorbo career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Australia squad – 2007 AFC Asian Cup 1 Schwarzer • 2 Neill • 3 Kisnorbo • 4 Cahill • 5 Čulina • 6 Beauchamp • 7 Emerton • 8 Wilkshire • 9 Viduka • 10 Kewell • 11 Thompson • 12 Jones • 13 Grella • 14 Holman • 15 Aloisi • 16 Thwaite • 17 Valeri • 18 Petkovic • 19 Carle • 20 Carney • 21 Sterjovski • 22 Milligan • 23 Bresciano • Coach: Arnold