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Australian football is still viewed as a novice and has minimal credibility from Europe’s elite. Despite the fact that many Australian fans think our ‘big name’ players are global stars, truth be told, the average punter in Europe can barely name half a dozen current Australian players.
And our national team is still not highly regarded, despite what we may have achieved in Germany 2006 – and maybe rightly so, given we have only qualified for two World Cups since 1974. We are certainly not expected to navigate our way through our group in South Africa, which could work to our favour.
Yes, we have a few players plying their trade in the so-called best league in the world. But currently all are playing at lower to mid-table clubs, with realistically very little chance of winning any silverware in the foreseeable future. So, why are our best players struggling to get recognised by the elite clubs in Europe? Why aren’t Timmy Cahill, Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill or Brett Emerton lining up for the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Inter, Barcelona, or even clubs like Sevilla, Bayern Munich, Fiorentina or Lyon?
Is it just that they are flat out not good enough? Is it that our best players are all on the wrong side of 30 and therefore not attractive to these European heavyweights? Is it a litany of poor career choices? Probably it’s a combination of factors, but maybe our players are simply not ambitious enough and are content to settle at smaller clubs in order to guarantee themselves first team action – Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer being prime examples. Maybe our players just exhibit an unwavering loyalty to a club, such as Tim Cahill.
I think that despite what Australian footballers have achieved in Europe, there is still a perception that Aussies can’t really cut it at the absolute elite level. A South American, European or even African player carries a much higher reputation to that of an Aussie. Put a Brazilian and an Aussie of equal ability side by side and it seems the Brazilian will get chosen every time, because of a pre-conceived conception that surely an Aussie couldn’t be more gifted than a Samba swaying Brazilian.
But are regulars such as Thomas Kuszczak or Manuel Almunia really better keepers than Mark Schwarzer? Or Lucas Leiva’s holding midfielder attributes of a higher quality than that of our own Vince Grella? I think not.
Which is why our anticipated success at this year’s World Cup is so crucial in eroding the notion that we can’t match the elite. Particularly a positive result against one of the big boys of world football on the global stage (I’m thinking Germany first up would suffice!) This type of result would surely catch the attention of Sir Alex, Jose and maybe even Pep, if he’s still at the helm next season.
The only Aussie running around in the Champions League this season was Brett Holman at AZ, and they were dumped out before the ‘real’ stuff starts in February.
Here’s hoping our results in South Africa will see a few more home-bred stars lining up on Tuesday and Wednesday nights with that Champions League theme music playing in the background.
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