Bastian Schweinsteiger: An A-League marquee from the dream factory

This is an embarassing article, the contract is for 2 more years, a hot poker isn;t going to get Schweinsteiger to move from Man U and take a salary reduct6ion, it will take a large payout. Its the dream factory because they were dreaming to pay a transfer fee plus such a long contract at such a high salary for an over 30 year old.

Your assertion that people only watch world best is laughable, naive and rather pathetic. If it were true then their can only be 1 worlds best. Now that is fairly easy for AFL as nobody else is playing it, doesn't work for Rugby, doesn't work for league and doesnt work for football. So sorry, I am calling bull on the whole I watch and played more football than you etc. Sorry to say FIFA11 doesn't count.

He's a great player, but I'm not a huge fan of Schweinsteiger. Don't think he has the pulling power of a Rooney or Brosque.

Its fabulous we are talking about players like Rooney and Schweinsteiger as potential A-League recruits. Just because we have an FFA marquee player fund doesn't mean we can go out and buy whoever we want and the FFA will pick up the tab. These guys need to be paid their weekly wage as well, which is about $200K a week or more, so the clubs are looking at a wage bill of $4 to $8 million plus accommodation and expenses. Del Piero and Cahill took a big pay cut to come to the A-League, so if the desire is there to come, maybe some club could manage it with some help from the FFA.

Yo ese, there be an Aussie Rules/AFL tab up in dis.... Hit it up, holmes ;)

Do we care!!! This is a football tab, as opposed to the AFL tab!!!! Work that out. if I was on the AFL tab I would say soccer (if talking world game ) as not to confuse people who have other ideas of what football is.

That seems an odd thing to say, German soccer started around 1903, by that time country football clubs in SA playing the Australian game had been around for 30- 40 years, in the city earlier. The Kapunda FC in the Barossa league is one of the oldest football clubs in the world. 1866 - 2016 150 years old.

As it turns out, there *is* a Hahndorf SC (established 1979): http://hahndorfsc.com/club-history/ They're nicknamed The Magpies, which is a tad unexpected I guess.

He called it Australian Football because that is it's proper name, "The sport of Australian football has been called by a number of different names throughout its history; but since 1905, after the formation of the Australasian Football Council, the game has been officially called "Australian football"; and the name has been codified by the sport's governing body, the AFL Commission, as the game's official name, in the "Laws of Australian football".

"so people look for excellence at sports even if they are not global sports" True for some but not for all Brucie. A Mickey Mouse world cup is still a Mickey Mouse world cup.

They've been there since the 1800's and thus have very little cultural links to Germany apart from the food, wine, beer culture. That's about it. AFL is king in South Australia.

On the contrary I have no doubt that I have watched and played more asso football than you and am far more knowledgeable on all aspects of the game probably even including the a league which is clearly a laughable league. The fact that you evidently think otherwise is merely an indication of your standards!

IMO this would be the biggest signing in the A-League to date I think he played in 26 Man U games last year and his international record and club record is up their ... IMO at the second level... Assume Messie and R and a few others occupy the very top level.... the next level down are extraordinary players of huge talent and that's who this guy is. Still relatively young and if Man U just want him away to avoid issues in their sheds then I would be more than glad if he came.... a huge fight would be who he plays for.

Your original premise was that "The crux of the problem is This guy is way past his best". Clearly you are talking nonsense. Now you've decided to redefine your premise with some more nonsense by bringing up NFL. It's good to get a variety of input on these discussions but some people (like yourself) are clearly out of their depth when discussion football. Your sole purpose is to add meaningless sarcastic comments that add nothing to the conversation. Why do you bother?

That's as maybe but a local superstar resonates with local peeps who identify with them. Look at the number of stories about Hayne playing NFL and about his tough upbringing in working class Minto in Sydney's west. Who in contemporary Oz identifies Bastian and with where Bastian grew up? Perhaps a few thousand German expats? His 'story' doesn't connect with the local media which is obsessed with nonsense about the battler Aussie taking on the world. That is the insurmountable issue for the a league and the nbl- the world's best quality ain't here and is never going to be unless they are well past their prime so people look for excellence at sports even if they are not global sports. The world's best rugby, cricket and AFL players are playing here even if these sports are not played much elsewhere.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is paid around $24 million per year to play sport. This is more than the highest paid Australian sportsmen in the prime of their careers. It’s about 20 times more than the highest paid professionals playing sport locally in Australia. So, if Schweinsteiger is "past his best" it’s obviously more financially rewarding to be “past your best" in football; than a “superstar” in local Australian sports.

The crux of the problem is This guy is way past his best and yet the FFA will Probably pay top dollar for him and treat him like he is still a superstar with gallop licking his uncleaned boots. If the FFA seriously want asso football to usurp rugby union as the third biggest football code and fourth biggest sport in this sunburnt land then the money needs to go to the small teams who struggle to get by. I can't help but laugh as someone who regularly watched stars in their prime in Europe at how local peeps will pay top dollar to watch such dross as the frendlies where a so called 'big team' team like Spurs (who haven't won the premier league or its predecessor for 50 years!) come over in July but doesn't even bring their first team are funniest!

This is one of those situations where I wouldn't mind the FFA stepping in to use the bulk of this 'warchest' on one signing. I'm a Sydney fan, but I would have no problem if the FFA gave 60% (for example) of the marquee fund to a rival club to get a player of his stature. Ultimately, his presence would benefit the whole league.

Having spent a fair bit of time in the Barossa Valley, local sport was dominated by the Australian Rules/netball axis that runs through most country towns in SA. Hockey (never "field hockey") was also pretty popular, as was basketball. Football not so much. I'd be surprised if there was an untapped market of German identifying people in SA who would get around Adelaide United if Schweinsteiger signed on as a guest/marquee.

Have to call it field hockey in my house, as we have played both versions, field and ice. Ice tends to just called hockey