Who is the A-League's next Del Piero?

Has anyone noticed that Melbourne heart is owned by man city, who also owns ny red bulls, cahills club....

Really back it up why it's rubbish?

I'm just happy I was sitting on a toilet seat when I read this piece of rubbish.

jb the Robbie Fowler one is an interesting comparision. Same with Heskey. Robbie Fowler if anything has more on common with the anglo aussie than ADP. He also is into race horses, owns a few, is a working class lad, im surprised Fowler didn't connect more. Mind you up in NTH QLD along way from any sokah heartland. Perth glory were a mess when Fowler joined. Dwight Yorke was a hit in Sydney, he was black and central american from Trinadad but ex Man United. Maybe Sokah in OZ, is still ethnic dominated so ADP, the old NSL old football V new football, all the ethnics could relate more to ADP than Fowler who is more anglo. Fowler was a big hit in Thailand. Thailand though is far more EPL centric than Serie A, massive EPL fan base in Thailand. Heskey faded in his 2nd season. Benito Carbone, another guest marquee Italian import with Sydney FC got the Bling Fc fans excited, he had big popularity in his short time. Japan superstar Kazu at Sydney FC was a hit. Maybe there's something to it in old sydney town. Anglo-celtic imports are not welcome, only ethnic ones or Asian. Would Craig Bellamy, bring in the fans interesting. Ryan Giggs would draw in the fans, but Giggs has some ethnic in him, some African, he's not completely anglo like Fowler. Paul Scholes I wonder if he'd as an anglo import get hype at Sydney FC, that type. Or a teddy sheringham another anglo type marquee as an example. But yep JB, im not sure anglo imports like Scholes,Sherringham,Peter Crouch,John Terry,Fowler appeal to bling FC's cosmopolitan style image and fan base, as there to anglo and working class. Beckham would but he's different, he's a glamour type, that bling fc like, marries to a girl band singer, and Beckham is half Jewish and eastern suburbs Hakoah etc has a big Jewish fan base at Sydney FC. Hakoah played the other night, lost to blacktown city to get into FFA cup, alot of Hakoah fans were wearing sydney fc merchandise at the game.

Hate to bring up ethnics into this discussion but a look at statistics would point out that ADP besides being a world renowned footballer in his own right was also an Italian and with the hosts of first,second, and third generation Italians living in Australia it is not difficult to work out how or why he put "bums on seats" at nearly every ground he visited in that first year. Naturally this "effect" diminished slightly in the second term but it would be hoped that some of those first year newcomers would have returned to watch their local teams. This "effect' is a thing most of the commenters have ignored here and we read of money,distance, age,and of course standard all being bandied around but few have mentioned the undoubted ethnic connection ADP brought to our game in these last 2 years. ADP was not the first big name,Robbie Fowler was probably as well known to football followers,was a self confessed very rich man,but in two different areas of Australia,Townsville and Perth,failed to ignite the interest ADP did,so if we can find out why,we may have a better guide as to what a marquee player has to bring to our game.. jb

Big name players will consider Australia for similar reasons as ADP, and true they won't necessarily do it for the money at the latter stages of their career, but their brand will still expect respectable money, even to maintain their reputation and status. Many of my own reloes in Italy won't travel here because the trip is too long. So the concept becomes a live one only for the more adventurous. Hopefully ADP will change this mentality.

Drogba perfect replacement for Berisha.

Yes Punter , the more quality we can get into the A-League the better . Clubs should be given the option to do this if they can afford it. Remember at one stage we discussed this and said that the funding for it should be incorporated into the next TV deal so all clubs could tap into it. Sort of like a sinking fund.

Would like to take this to the next level Towser; Primary Marquee - Drogba,Pirlo maybe Lampard, an Australian can also be added like Cahill. Secondary - Like a Broich, Berisha, an Aussie like Bresc or Kennedy can also fall into this category Asian - Like an Ono or CCM Kim, but can also include an Aussie like Brosque or McDonald. That way 3 of your 4 foreigners (from season 11) are top class.

Have WSW even been sold yet? No way they should be signing marquees if they are still on the books of the FFA.

fair enough. It's such an exciting rumour, just trying to find out as much as possible atm!!

Punter I can only hope that people from the FFA occassionally peruse the Roar and perhaps see the same light we do.

i'd say the sake of the article that Messi or Suarez weren't mentioned as they are in their prime. Thought that was obvious, regardless of the chances of some of the mentioned players actually coming here.

Still not enough money in the kitty, people. Wait until the next t.v. rights deal when at least twice as much money will become available.

I am not so sure Chris .If Sydney couldn't half fill a stadium with Del Pierro , Emmerton ,Carle,etc then the stadium could be beyond filling regardless of personnel. The stadium is too big. One day it will not be too big, when four or more A-League sides are in Sydney,( City, North, West, South,) but in the interim a smaller capacity venue would pay dividends.

.........and Wellington. Beats me. Wollongong makes more sense than Wellington.

Exactly. I think the guys who've been earning lots of money playing for top teams in top leagues and have been wise with their money, once they reach that point in their career where they are considering playing in a "lesser" league, money is almost certainly not the driving factor. On the other hand, where you get players who've played for lesser teams, never got the really high salaries and can have the chance to get one last good pay-day from the more cashed up small leagues, they have more incentive to go where the money leads them, which I think is why we've seen a number of the Aussie players, who, while they would have done well financially, aren't in the same ballpark as many of these other top players, go to play in places like the middle east, where they are throwing money at people and it's reasonable for them to do so knowing they've only got a few more years to cash in on the fact they can play football well enough to make money doing it. But the sorts of guys we are talking about like the ones listed here wouldn't fall in that category. So I'm sure that while they'll get the best financial deal they can out of whatever club they sign for, who can pay them the most won't necessarily be the top motivating factor in a move.

Joe Cole was recently quoted as saying the $$$ don't matter for his next move, he just wants to enjoy footy again.

- Kaka - Maybe not for this season, but maybe a year of two away, he's still only 32. - Xavi - He's 34 now, probably just the right sort of age to get someone like that, still got plenty to offer, but is starting to reach the twilight of his career. - Thomas Rosicky Okay, enough of this craziness. Definitely a big part of it is finding a quality player that fits well into the system and into the area you are lacking as a team and brings a lot. Teams like WSW don't need big names to attract more fans, they don't have a big enough stadium to fit any more fans in until they can get Parra Stadium well past 30k capacity. Sydney FC play in a 45K capacity stadium, so if they can sign a big name that gets a lot more bums on seats then they've got the capacity to do that, but as a name to help sell tickets the Marquee isn't really any bonus at clubs with smaller capacity grounds.

That's one reason why it's particularly hard to be Perth. With 4 of the 10 teams not far away from each other around Sydney and Brisbane and Melbourne pretty easy flights away, you find those four teams probably have it much easier than some of the others travel-wise. E/C teams have one or two trips to Perth each season. Perth teams have a really long trip for every away game. Has to make it extra tough on those guys.