Mark Fish

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Personal information
Mark Fish

Full name	Mark Anthony Fish
Date of birth	March 14, 1974 (age 33)
Place of birth	Cape Town, South Africa
Height	6ft 4in
Nickname	Big Fish, Tlhapi, Feeesh
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Jomo Cosmos
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1991-1993 1993-1996 1996-1997 1997-2000 2000-2005 2005 2007-	Jomo Cosmos Orlando Pirates Lazio Bolton Wanderers Charlton Athletic Ipswich Town (loan) Jomo Cosmos	53 (3) 110 (11) 15 (1) 103 (3) 102 (2) 1 (0)
National team²
1993-2004	South Africa	62 (2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 08/10/2006. ² National team caps and goals correct as of 08/10/2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Mark Fish (born 14 March 1974 in Cape Town) is a South African footballer currently playing for Jomo Cosmos.

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Personal life
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Club career

Fish started his career in his native South Africa playing for Arcadia Shepards, an amateur team in Tshwane. He was spotted by then Jomo Cosmos coach Roy Matthews and turned professional as a striker. It was at Cosmos that he was converted into a central defender and went on to become one of the most promising defenders in South Africa at the time.

In 1994 Fish was signed by Orlando Pirates after Cosmos were relegated. At Pirates he arguably played the best football of his career under the tutelage of Mark Makaab. He also won the league championship at Pirates, as well as the BP Top Eight Cup in 1994, the 1995 African Champions League and the 1995 Bobsave Super Bowl (then the premier cup in South Africa). In 1996 he was part of the history making South African national team to have won the African Cup of Nations at the first attempt after South Africa's readmission to FIFA in 1992.

Soon foreign scouts came knocking and he was signed by Lazio of Italy, after he turned down an opportunity to play for his boyhood club, Manchester United. However he did move to England after just one season at Lazio to become the highest paid player at Bolton Wanderers. Fish was a mainstay in Bolton's back four for much of their first season back in the Premiership, he received praise from both team mates and those whom he played against, most notably Manchester United forward Andrew Cole. Despite Fish's efforts Bolton were relegated on the last day of the season despite having accumulated 44 points, normally enough to stave of the drop. Once playing back in the lower leagues Fish applied himself well, however, new suitors soon came calling, and only after the appointment of Sam Allardyce did Fish's star begin to fall in the North of Lancashire. Fish soon followed his Danish team mate Claus Jensen and at Alan Curbishley's second time of asking moved to Charlton Athletic in a £700,000 move in November 2000. "The Big Fish" as he was affectionately known throughout his playing career went on to make 111 Premiership appearances for the Addicks, scoring three times.

In 2005 he began to fall out of favour at Charlton. He went on to have a very short loan spell at Ipswich Town in the 2005-06 season but a severe cruciate ligament injury led to Fish announcing his retirement.

However, in February 2007, Fish returned to football when he signed a six-month contract with his first club Jomo Cosmos.

[edit] International career

Internationally, Fish is best remembered as being a crucial part of South Africa's victorious national soccer squad when they won the African Cup of Nations in 1996. In total he won 62 caps for the South African national team, scoring twice.

[edit] Personal life

He is married to Loui Fish (née Visser), a former lingerie model and well known socialite. They have two sons, Luke Fish (born in Bolton) & Zeke Fish.

Fish has returned from Europe to his homeland South Africa and has been actively involved in charity work, much of it aimed at the development of African soccer and the eradication of African poverty. He was one of a handful of Ambassadors in South Africa's successful bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

[edit] Trivia

One of his Charlton appearances was in a back four alongside Luke Young, Jorge Costa and Jonathan Fortune, in a defence whose names spelled out the message 'Young fish cost a fortune'.

[edit] External links

Mark Fish career stats at Soccerbase

	South Africa squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Vonk \| 2 Mnguni \| 3 Nyathi \| 4 Jackson \| 5 Fish \| 6 Masinga \| 7 Fortune \| 8 Phiri \| 9 Bartlett \| 10 Moshoeu \| 11 Mkhalele \| 12 Augustine \| 13 Buckley \| 14 Sikhosana \| 15 Khumalo \| 16 Baloyi \| 17 McCarthy \| 18 Morula \| 19 Radebe \| 20 Mokoena \| 21 Issa \| 23 Gopane \| Coach: Troussier