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Can the A-League survive as a selling league?

17th July, 2011
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17th July, 2011
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Kosta BarbarousesGood luck to Kosta Barbarouses. The 21-year-old New Zealand international has joined Russian side Alania Vladikavkaz from A-League champions Brisbane Roar, reportedly signing a three-year deal with the second-tier outfit.

Upon hearing the news, my first thought was to ponder whether Barbarouses knows exactly where Vladikavkaz is.

The city is the capital of the mountainous republic of North Ossetia, a war-torn region at the foothills of the Caucasus mountains perhaps best known as the scene of the brutal Beslan massacre in 2004.

While the Second Chechen War supposedly ended with the withdrawal of Russian troops in April 2009, a low-level insurgency is still in effect, with the North Caucasus region a tinderbox of separatist resentment and simmering nationalist sentiment.

I hope Barbarouses is handsomely remunerated because even if the creative talent walks straight into the Alania line-up, he may find the move to Vladikavkaz a jarring experience.

The city was bombed in 2008 and again in 2010, while two successive mayors were assassinated in a particularly bloody period of recent history.

On the pitch the North Ossetian club were crowned Russian champions in 1995, and this season they’ll play in the Europa League after losing a recent Russian Cup final to CSKA Moscow.

But when Barbarouses says he feels like the club are “one big family,” one wonders just how much information they really included in the brochure.

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At any rate, the departure of the New Zealand international is significant from an A-League point of view because it represents the fact talented youngsters are willing to move pretty much anywhere if it means securing a European contract.

Even, it seems, to Vladikavkaz.

And with another A-League campaign still almost three months from kicking off, we can hardly blame those in the prime of their careers from wanting to get on with the business of playing football.

But if the A-League is losing players of the calibre of Barbarouses – to the Russian second division, no less – can Australia’s premier competition perpetually survive as a selling league?

Or does Barbarouses’ departure simply open the door for someone else to step up and fill the void?

Over in Japan, the J. League is also experiencing an exodus of talent.

Versatile Japan international Masahiko Inoha recently joined Australian duo Steven Lustica and Ljubo Milicevic at Croatian giants Hajduk Split, and Lustica’s story is surely the flipside of being a talented young player in the A-League.

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Despite being one of the most highly rated young players in the country, the 20-year-old attacking talent simply couldn’t break into Miron Bleiberg’s starting eleven, with the controversial Gold Coast United coach telling reporters Lustica wasn’t “physical enough” to play a role in his squad next season.

It seems a case of “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” for certain young players sticking around in Australia, with the likes of Nick Tsattalios and Panny Nikas struggling to make an impact in their home country.

And with so much talk surrounding the future of established stars such as Harry Kewell, it’s little wonder so many young Australian players still head off to Europe with stars in their eyes.

In the case of Barbarouses though, I wonder if the volatile streets of Vladikavkaz are really a significant step up from the relative warmth of windy Wellington and balmy Brisbane.

And while I wish the New Zealand international all the best, I can’t help but hope to see the days when the A-League is viewed as a better environment in which to prosper than the bloody surrounds of a second division Russian club.

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