About 5 months ago I suggested it would be a good move for Newcastle United to keep Mark Viduka. How wrong I was!

Of course Newcastle had to release him as part of their drive to bring down their salary levels to be inline with Championship level revenues.

I still think that they should have tried to have kept Viduka, because he would surely have torn the Championship apart. Surely they could have offered him reduced wages? But then again, Mark’s probably not the sort to accept reduced wages (I’m talking about from a pride point of view rather than strictly financial).

Anyway, it seems that Mark may have played his last game. The Age is reporting that Viduka still hasn’t found a club, won’t be playing for the Socceroos and has lost the desire to play:

Socceroos coach Pim Verbeek has all but ended hopes of Mark Viduka making an international comeback, saying the striker has “made up his mind” on his playing career.

and:

Viduka, who was released by Newcastle at the end of the 2008/09 English domestic season, released a statement through his agent last month confirming he had lost his desire to continue playing football.

So it looks like it’s all over for Viduka.

I’ve really enjoyed following his career and I’m happy that he got to play for my club (Newcastle) and I’ll miss him. There are times you may want to hate him, but he’s got a lot of skill and he was an icon for Australian football.

Bye Bye Mark