Mitchell Grima, in an article on The Roar earlier this week, lamented that the foreign marquee spot was being wasted by many of the clubs in the A-League.
He pointed to the excitement created by David Villa in the league, but just what has been the impact and long term effect of marquees?
First up, Villa is not a marquee signing, but a 10-game loanee. While I will go to see him play, his stint here is little more than a publicity stunt for the new City franchise trying to convince the Melbourne public that they are a viable alternative to Victory.
For mine, the biggest marquees to date have been Dwight Yorke, Alessandro Del Piero, Harry Kewell and Robbie Fowler. These were all players that arrived in the league as names known by people outside the football family.
I doubt many outside of football circles, or even fans of the game for that matter, would have heard the name Shinji Ono before his arrival in this country.
Yorke certainly helped to launch the A-League with a bang, and Harry Kewell gave crowd attendances a measurable shot in the arm at a time when numbers were on a steep decline.
Robbie Fowler also helped to boost attendances wherever he travelled, but was ultimately not enough to save the Fury, and his stint with Perth was forgettable.
Alessandro Del Piero is, of course, the greatest marquee to play in the league. In his first season he substantially increased crowds both in Sydney and on the road, but figures would suggest the novelty value of that waned through season two.
Sydney averaged 18,637 punters through the gate in his first season with the Sky Blue and 18,682 in 2013-14, but that declines to 16,443 when the 80,000 fans who attended the two Sydney FC legs of the derby are taken from their total. Alessandro Del Piero was not enough, by himself, to keep over 2000 fans per week coming through the gates.
Of these four marquees, only Yorke has helped to deliver any silverware.
Let’s contrast Alessandro Del Piero’s effect with that of Brisbane Roar, a club supposedly in need of a bigger marquee.
Prior to the arrival of Alessandro Del Piero, Sydney had an average crowd of 11,861. He helped to boost that figure by 57 per cent, but, as demonstrated, that effect declined in his second year.
Prior to the arrival of Thomas Broich, Brisbane averaged 8,650. That figure has grown every year to now be 14,957, an increase of 73 per cent. Certainly not all of that is down to Broich, but a big part of it is due to the success he has helped to bring. Sustained growth is also a better indicator of increased long-term support than a single season surge.
Perhaps it was worded poorly, but the article also suggests that the foreign marquee spot “consumed” by Broich could be better utilised on some other foreign marquee. This for a player who is widely regarded as best player to ever regularly strap on a boot in the league and who has helped deliver five trophies in four seasons to the Brisbane club.
What more do any fans or clubs want from their marquee than that?
Broich has also continually mentioned the possibility of staying in Australia after the end of his playing career and taking up a coaching role to help develop the local game. Compare that with the ill-defined “legacy” promised by Del Piero or the fly-by-night visit of Villa.
It would also seem to me that the most widely reported news in the past off-season was not the arrival of Villa, but the transfer of Besart Berisha to Melbourne Victory.
I would argue that Ono, Berisha and Broich have made names for themselves in Australia thanks to their on-field performances rather than their past reputations, and they will be remembered more fondly because of that.
I am a Roar fan, and as much as I enjoyed watching Del Piero play, and any number of other marquees, I will take Broich over any of them, any day of the week, and twice on match day.
I have called for it before, and I still firmly believe it is high time journalists spend more time promoting the stars we already have playing in the league rather than pining for “names” from other locations.
Yes, overseas marquees can make a valuable contribution, but how can we convince those from outside our sport that we have a league worth watching when our own media continually call for higher profile imports?
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