ulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer has claimed he may have played his last game for the west London club, after disputing claims from manager Martin Jol that he has been offered a new contract.
Schwarzer, 40, is eager to play first team football in the lead up to next summer’s World Cup finals in Brazil and he has suggested he is ready to look elsewhere to extend his playing career after five years at Craven Cottage.
“I’m out of contract and as of yet I have had no official offer of a new deal contrary to reports, so I may have played my last game for Fulham,” the Australia international said. “I still have the hunger and desire to play at the highest level and my plan is to definitely play another year as I want to go to another World Cup.
“To do that I need to be playing regularly and if that means I need to go elsewhere then I will go elsewhere. I need to find a club that has faith in my abilities.”
Fulham boss Jol has stated his belief that Schwarzer was ready to sign a new deal with the club, with the Dutchman convinced his veteran stopper would still be at the club next season.
“We hope to find a solution with Mark,” stated Jol. “If we cannot find a solution, we need to get a very, very good goalkeeper because you need to be very, very good to be better than, or the same, as him.
“We offered him a new contract, the only thing is he wanted to be guaranteed to be the number one. You can go on the market and find a useless goalkeeper, but you want a good goalkeeper and if you find a good goalkeeper you have to fight for your place, but we will sit down with him and try to find a solution.”
