Patrick Fabio Maxime Kisnorbo (born 24 March 1981) is an Australian professional soccer manager and former player, who is the head coach of Sydney FC. As a player, Kisnorbo was primarily a centre-back, but also played as a defensive midfielder. He made eighteen appearances for the Australia national team.
Kisnorbo was a fans' favourite at Leicester City, accumulating over 100 appearances in his four years at the club. During his time with Leicester, he was at the centre of a number of refereeing controversies in which officiating calls were later shown to be wrong. He has also suffered some injuries that affected his playing ability for a time. Kisnorbo has represented Australia at international level in three tournaments; the 2002 and 2004 Nation Cups and the 2007 Asian Cup. He started his professional career at South Melbourne and later played for the Scottish club Heart of Midlothian before joining Leicester and then transferring to Leeds United.
Kisnorbo won the 2009–10 fans Player of The Season award and also the Players Player Award for Leeds United in his debut season. During his first two years at Leeds, Kisnorbo wore a bandage on his head when playing as 'a superstition' after initially wearing it following a head injury suffered on his Leeds debut.
Early life Kisnorbo was born in Melbourne to a Mauritian father and an Italian mother who was from Trieste. Because of his mother's birth, Kisnorbo holds an Italian passport, which allows him to bypass European Union work permit restrictions. He is fluent in Italian.
Club career Early career Kisnorbo began playing football as a youth in his hometown with Essendon City and Bulleen. As a 15-year-old, he moved to South Melbourne's youth team, where he stayed for two seasons in the National Soccer League Youth.
South Melbourne After a string of stand-out performances for the youth team, Kisnorbo was selected for the senior team, which was competing in the now defunct National Soccer League. Kisnorbo performed like a seasoned veteran and cemented his spot at centre back as a youngster ahead of more experienced players at the club. In his first season, Kisnorbo's performances led to South Melbourne winning the 2000-01 Premiership, 8 points ahead of second place.
In his secondary season, Kisnorbo performances led him to be awarded the Theo Marmaras medal for the best player at South Melbourne during the 2002 season.
Kisnorbo went on to make 67 appearances for the club and scored on 3 occasions. His big stature and toughness made him a fan-favourite to the Hellas fans and attracted international interest following his performances for the club.
Heart of Midlothian After much speculation, Kisnorbo made his move from South Melbourne to the Edinburgh-based Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian in July 2003, signing a two-year contract. He previously went on trial at Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dunfermline Athletic before making a move to Jam Tarts. He was recommended to Hearts by former player Dave McPherson. 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.
Kisnorbo also played in the UEFA Cup against such clubs as Bordeaux, Feyenoord, Schalke 04 and Ferencváros, and scored a goal against Portuguese club Braga. 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.
Leicester City Kisnorbo joined Leicester City in April 2005 after leaving Hearts, signing a pre-contract agreement in January. He followed former Hearts boss Craig Levein, teammates Mark de Vries and Alan Maybury across the border to the Midlands club.
Kisnorbo's first goal for Leicester came on 15 October 2005 against Watford at Vicarage Road, which turned out to be the match winner. 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. 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.
Transfer speculation linked Kisnorbo to Wigan Athletic at the end of the 2005–06 season, but he decided to extend his stay with Leicester by signing a new three-year contract, less than 12 months after joining the club. Kisnorbo began the 2006–07 season well, scoring two goals and putting in fine rear-guard displays against Coventry City and Southend United, helping the club survive relegation yet again. He was linked with a move to Fulham during the January transfer window. 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.
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 less 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.Scunthorpe 0–0 Leicester, BBC Sport 20 October 2007. Retrieved 22 October 2007. Video replay showed that Kisnorbo's disallowed goal was actually onside, greatly frustrating him, 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." 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.Ipswich 3–1 Leicester, BBC Sport 11 December 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2007. Joslin admitted his mistake, and had the ban rescinded the following day after video replays showed Kisnorbo actually won the ball outside the penalty area.Kisnorbo has red card rescinded, BBC Sport 12 December 2007. Retrieved 28 October 2013. Leicester's then-manager Ian Holloway described the sending off as a "complete kerfuffle". The Leicester club was fined £3,000 by The Football Association, however, because of Kisnorbo's teammates' angry appeals to Joslin during the game. 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. 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." Leicester also succeeded in their appeal against the second red card.
Further misfortune came when Kisnorbo suffered damaged knee ligaments in 3–1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on 26 April 2008, sidelining him for six months. His injury badly affected Leicester's hopes of surviving in the Championship. 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.Leicester 2–0 Ipswich, BBC Sport 26 December 2007. Retrieved 29 December 2007.
2008–09 season Kisnorbo returned to action the following season in a 3–0 reserve team win over Rushden & Diamonds on 2 October. He later returned for the first team coming on as a substitute in a 1–1 draw against Oldham Athletic on 18 October 2008. 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. Kisnorbo made his competitive return as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 win over Millwall on 14 March 2009, but by then was facing competition in the first team from teammates Wayne Brown, Jack Hobbs, Michael Morrison and Aleksandar Tunchev. He started just three games in the second half of the season, which saw the club secure their promotion as League One champions.
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. Leicester on 29 May released Kisnorbo at the end of his contract, along with Paul Henderson, Marc Edworthy, Bruno Ngotty and Barry Hayles. Kisnorbo stated he was "very disappointed to have been released", 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." He had trials with Crystal Palace and Derby County, but was unable to secure a move to either club.
Leeds United 2009–10 season On 22 July 2009, Kisnorbo signed for Leeds United on a two-year contract. He made his debut in a 2–1 win over Exeter City on 8 August. On his debut Kisnorbo suffered a head wound which required stitches, after receiving stitches to the wound off the pitch he came out wearing a head bandage. After playing for Australia on 12 August, Kisnorbo became Leeds's 100th full international player. Whilst at Leeds he established himself as a fans' favourite for his solid performances and his brave style of play. After suffering the head injury, which required 12 stitches, Kisnorbo wore a protective headband. He rejected plastic surgery to avoid losing his place in the team: "I can't see myself going for [surgery] at the moment because I've got bigger things to worry about than getting this sorted."
Kisnorbo scored his first goal for Leeds against Millwall on his return to the starting lineup after missing the previous game against Norwich City having picked up an illness on international duty. His international call-ups along with other internationals at Leeds resulted in games against Swindon Town and Bristol Rovers being postponed. Kisnorbo missed the games against Kettering Town, Oldham Athletic and local rivals Huddersfield Town through an injury he picked up in training. He had not recovered from injury to be able to have a part in the squad in the FA Cup replay to Kettering. Instead, the Australia international returned to the Leeds starting line up against Brentford.
Kisnorbo played against Manchester United when Leeds won 1–0 away at Old Trafford on 3 January in the FA Cup, during which he and Richard Naylor "bolted the door against the assaults of Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov", after which he was described as a hero. Kisnorbo missed the Football League Trophy Northern Section Final first leg loss against Carlisle United with a calf injury. Kisnorbo returned to Leeds' starting lineup, and played the full 90 minutes, in the next game where Leeds earned a 2–2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup.
Kisnorbo was part of the Leeds defence, who were defeated 3–0 by Swindon Town. Kisnorbo was omitted from the Leeds squad in the next game against Colchester United after being ruled out by injury. The injury also forced him to miss the FA Cup replay at Elland Road against Tottenham Hotspur, the League One game against Hartlepool United and the Football League Trophy Northern Section final second leg against Carlisle.
Kisnorbo's season prematurely ended after he suffered a suspected ruptured achilles tendon against Millwall in March, ending his hopes of playing in Leeds's promotion charge, and also his dream of playing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Leeds as a result signed Neill Collins on loan from Preston to cover his absence.
In May 2010, he was selected in the Football League One PFA Team of the Year for the 2009–10 season. On the final day of the season Kisnorbo was named as the fans' Leeds United Player of the Season and also the Players' Player of the Season. Leeds were promoted to the Football League Championship after finishing in second place in League 1 and thus earning automatic promotion.
2010–11 season