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Brisbane Roar player Kosta Barbarouses (r) reacts to a goal with captain Matt McKay (l). (AAP Image/Dave Hunt).
If for a moment we close our eyes and pretend the A-League has a fully functioning and vibrant marketing department, we have to acknowledge that it’s about to lose the face of its campaign.
By the end of the week Brisbane Roar captain and Socceroo mainstay Matt McKay is expected to sign a deal with Scottish champions, Glasgow Rangers.
It’s a surprise move from a player so steadfast in his loyalty to Brisbane and so integral to their recent success.
It’s a move that doesn’t exactly bode well for the A-League either, though it’s one that is understandable.
At 28, and playing the finest football of his career, Matt McKay has every right to pursue the biggest contract he can get his hands on.
Though he’ll receive some criticism for leaving the A-League at one of its most delicate times, the fact is McKay owes nothing to the league as he more than anyone else has helped build the brand’s identity over the years.
McKay is a shining example for the A-League and an embodiment of all that’s great about the league and all that can be gained by staying to play in Australia.
For six seasons he toiled away in a variety of good, bad and exceptional Brisbane teams, slowly developing himself into the elite player he is today.
Renowned for his exceptional fitness, McKay added a number of layers to his game over the years, developing his left foot into a more potent weapon and utilising his footballing nous to be of immense value in a variety of positions.
His development earned him a surprise call up to Holger Osieck’s Asian Cup squad earlier in the year, which at the time was seen as somewhat of a token gesture – a symbolic offering that the A-League had a role to play where the Socceroos were concerned.
However when Brett Emerton succumbed to an injury in the group stage of the tournament, McKay proved just why Osieck had selected him, instantly demonstrating his versatility at both left back and as a key midfield cog.
McKay’s memorable cross to Harry Kewell deep in stoppage time of their quarter-final against Iraq became the most indelible moment of the tournament for the Australians.
So with less than two months away from the A-League’s start it does come as some surprise to learn that McKay will be joining Rangers imminently.
Ange Postecoglou’s decree that he and his club won’t stand in the way of one of its players taking advantage of a better deal overseas is now undergoing its sternest test.
The Roar already lost Milan Susak to the Indonesian Premier League as well as Jean Carlos Solórzano to the Melbourne Victory earlier in the year.
The team’s top scorer last season, Kosta Barbarouses, recently departed as well, taking up an offer in second division Russia of all places.
With Postecoglou now about to lose his captain, perhaps cracks are starting to appear in Ange’s nascent empire?
However the most puzzling question to emerge concerning McKay’s departure is why Scotland, in a league surely not profoundly better than our own, and a climate substantially worse?
And while McKay doesn’t seem to be a player particularly motivated by oversized pay-cheques and endorsements, one would think he could have found a similar deal in second tier Italy or Spain, or perhaps somewhere in Germany, as a host of equally accomplished Australians have recently.
My guess is the Scottish move is more motivated by a part of McKay’s game which he feels needs particular development in, and which he’s determined the Scottish Premier League is best equipped to fulfil.
It is a mystery, though not of the sordid variety, and one which McKay’s accumulated credits should exempt from being investigated with any degree of malice.
But still, why Rangers?
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