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Sydney's Shannon Cole (left) and Brisbane's Tommy Oar (right) during the round 25 A-League match between Brisbane Roar and Sydney F.C at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Since the A-League’s inception five years ago, there’s been no secret that players and fans alike see the national competition as little more than a stepping stone to the greener pastures of Europe.
Sure, they’re passionate about whatever club they’re playing for, but the moment an offer from overseas comes in, they can’t leave fast enough.
Bruce Djite jumped ship to the Turkish league in 2008. He returned home with an unflattering six goals in 43 league appearances (for Genclerbiligi and Diyarbakirspor) to join Gold Coast United – suggesting that his decision to leave Australia at age 21 was perhaps a brash one.
His Adelaide and Olyroos teammate Nathan Burns departed South Australia at roughly the same time, and is currently plugging away with F.C Kerkyra in Greece, whose stadium capacity of 2685 would suggest that even GCU would put their crowd numbers to shame.
Then there’s Nick Ward and Ruben Zadkovich, who left the A-League for forgettable forays with Queens Park Rangers and Derby County respectively, before returning to Australia.
In fairness, not all the Aussie exports faded into obscurity upon departure. Although David Carney struggled to hold down a spot at Sheffield United after transferring from Sydney FC, it appeared he had found a role at a decent team, in a decent league (Twente in the Eredivisie) until on deadline day he made the baffling decision to move to Blackpool, where once again he is lucky to even get five minutes off the bench at the end of the game.
But with the announcement of Holger Osieck’s Asian Cup squad, there’s never been a more relevant comparison between a player who chanced his arm overseas and one that stuck with the A-League in order to break through to the national team.
Born a month apart in the same city, playing for the same team, one playing wide on the left, the other playing wide on the right. Robbie Kruse and Michael Zullo both made their starting XI debuts for the Brisbane Roar in the same game against Wellington Phoenix, on the 5th of October, 2007. It was a game that thrust both of them into the public eye, with Zullo scoring the first and setting up Kruse’s winner.
Big things were expected from the pair of local boys and it was by and large the opinion of experts that they would not achieve their full potential at the Roar (who were a far cry from the table topping juggernaut that we’ve seen this season).
As many had predicted, Kruse left the club in September 2009. But unlike Burns and Djite before him, Kruse’s destination was not in the Mediterranean, but rather to Brisbane’s rivals, the Melbourne Victory – to replace the departing Danny Allsopp.
Zullo remained in Brisbane for another season before being transferred to Utrecht, along with Tommy Oar and Adam Sarota.
People questioned Kruse’s sideways move to the Victory, but after playing in a grand final last year and currently being in career best form, it seems an inspired decision.
He is one of only four locally based players to make the cut for the Asian Cup, where he will make his debut for the Socceroos. In the meantime, Zullo is yet to make an appearance for Utrecht and has been frozen out of the national team since a couple of substitute appearances in predominantly A-League based squads two seasons ago.
The benefit to more A-League players being deemed national team standard is unquestionable – it brings more credibility to a struggling league and will entice the best players to prolong their stay in Australia before looking overseas.
With crowd numbers dropping despite the overall quality of the football increasing, motivating the Australian public to drag themselves to A-League games may well prove that little bit easier with “Asian Cup winner Robbie Kruse” in action against “Asian Cup winner Jade North.”
Obviously players will not stay in Australia forever. Robbie Kruse will eventually leave the A-League and hopefully not return until he’s 33 and has had a great career in Europe.
All we can hope for is that the next young crop of Australian footballers look to Kruse or Luke DeVere for inspiration, rather than the dozens of guys that made the jump too early and returned to Australia with their tails between their legs.
Sadly, I don’t see Bruce Djite or Ruben Zadkovich being the answer to Australia’s problems anywhere down the line.
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