Cards, crunching challenges and now club captaincy for fan's favourite "The Pog"
The no-nonsense full-back has won a host of admirers at The Riverside with his whole-hearted approach.
The Austrian-born defender, who starred for Austria during the co-hosts Euro 2008 campaign, arrived in the North East from Bundesliga-giants Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2005 for a fee of £1.8m.
A prodigious collector of yellow and red cards in recent years, Pogatetz scored his first goal for the club in a 3-0 win over local rivals Sunderland in January 2006 and picked up the club’s player of the year award after a series of outstanding displays throughout the 2006-07 season.