Australian media reports that the Western Sydney Wanderers are in discussions with Japanese playmaker Shinji Ono to make him the club’s inaugural marquee player.
The reports increase speculation that former Germany captain Michael Ballack – who is an attacking midfielder like Ono and is also linked with the Wanderers – will not be signing for the A-League’s newest club.
Ono currently plays for Shimizu S-Pulse in the J-League, but he has fallen out with that club’s coaching staff and it is believed that he wants a move away from Japan.
It is understood that Wanderers manager Tony Popovic, as well as the Wanderers board, would prefer signing Ono over Ballack. Popovic played in the J-League at the same time as Ono and experienced his ability first-hand.
At 32, Ono is also three years younger than Ballack, and wants only $800,000 per season – roughly half the amount demanded by Ballack and significantly less than the reported salaries of the A-League’s other high-profile foreign marquees, Emile Heskey and Alessandro Del Piero.
Any money spent by the FFA, who fund the Wanderers, in attaining Ono, would also be more than repaid by the subsequent sale of A-League TV rights to Japan, where Ono and Del Piero both enjoy cult status.
Ono playing for the Wanderers could also encourage Sydney’s large Japanese community to support the A-League.
Ono is regarded as one of Asia’s greatest ever footballers, and is known by the nickname ‘Tensai’, or ‘genius’, in Japan. He has played 56 times for Japan, including at three World Cups and one Asian Cup.
Between his stints at Urawa Reds in Japan, he spent four years at Feyenoord in the Netherlands and then three years at Vfl Bochum in the German Bundesliga, before returning to hometown club Shimizu in 2010.
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