Like many A-League fans, I viewed the latest news surrounding Andres Iniesta’s potential move to the A-League with cautious optimism.
It is not every day that someone of his level is linked with a move to the A-League and there is absolutely no doubt that he would be able to capture the attention of viewers and advertisers alike.
However while there is no doubting Iniesta’s immense quality, we need to take a step back and remind ourselves of the last big imports that we had in the A-League. We all remember the hype around Alessandro Del Piero’s move to Sydney FC in the 2012-13 season, but remember Sydney FC finished the season in seventh, missing out on finals football on goal difference.
While Del Piero did make the team of the season, he was behind in the race for the golden boot, drawing with Besart Berisha of Brisbane Roar on 14, but still behind of the 17 by Daniel McBreen of the Central Coast Mariners.
His second season was not as impressive. Sydney finished in fifth and made the finals, but again Del Piero did not challenge the race for the golden boot, finishing with 10 behind the 16 scored by Adam Taggart of Newcastle.
(Image: Peter McAlpine)
In the same season, we also had Emile Heskey play for Newcastle. The former Liverpool forward can also be considered a disappointment, only scoring 10 in 42 appearances for Newcastle, hardly living up to his hype.
Let’s also move across to the Western Sydney Wanders and Shinji Ono. Ono was not as big a star as Del Pierro, but at least he can claim to have had some success with Western Sydney, wining a premiers plate and making two A-League grand finals.
Ono was certainly a good player, also highlighted by his appearance in the team of the season, but you would not say that he has been the best player ever seen in the A-League
I know that there are other ways of judging a player’s quality, but this does dispel the stigma that seems to surround the A-League and foreign players, they are automatically better than our own ‘no name’ marquees. Del Piero was not the goal scoring behemoth that the media seemed to suggest. While he did score and was a good player, he was not the best player seen in the A-League, as is the case with Ono and Heskey.
So who would I say have been the best players in the A-League over its inception? A good start to answer that question would be to see the PFA A-League team of the decade. While it’s a little old, some of the players that have made the starting line up could make a solid case for being the A-League’s best player.
It is no surprise to see some of Ange Postecoglou’s title-winning players feature in the team, as his Brisbane Roar side was arguably the best at the time. But when I look at this team, I look at some of the foreign marquee players.
Of course Besart Berisha and Thomas Broich feature, they had brilliant seasons in the A-League, with Berisha recently winning his fourth A-League championship. If we were to look more to the future there is no reason why some of the players from the past two seasons at Sydney should not feature.
Bobo, Adrian Mijerswki, Milos Ninkonvic, all brilliant players, with silverware to back up their claims. Even Melbourne City (despite their consistent underachievement) have been able to boast brilliant players, from their foreign marquee Bruno Fornaroli and the fantastic Socceroo Aaron Mooy.
Today, we boast some of the best marquee players that the A-League has ever seen. It is a shame that no one knows of their brilliance.
I recently had this discussion with some of my friends. I explained to him how in the A-League, and even in Major League Soccer to some extent, superstar marquees in their mid 30s rarely set it alight.
Of course, they bring a much-needed spark to the game, and can gain the interest of the casual fan, but they will never live up to the high expectations placed on them by the media to score 25 plus goals a season. Our “no name” marquees can, and have been performing well too.
His reply was obvious, “no one knows about those players”. My reply is also similarly obvious, we need to make them know about them.
These players that I have listed above should not be able to walk the streets of their respective cities without being noticed. There needs to be billboards of them on the highways. An actual marketing campaign by the FFA that displays that while our marquees do not have the big reputations of their more famous counterparts, they certainly do not lack the quality.
I do not want to make comparisons to the AFL in this article because I do not want to start a code war, but they do have a marketing strategy that is effective. Everyone in Adelaide knows who Eddie Betts is, everyone in Melbourne knows who Dustin Martin is and everyone in Sydney knows who Buddy Franklin is. The reason is not because they watch a lot of AFL, it is because their faces are everywhere. In the newspapers, on the billboards on the highway and on television.
It baffles me why the FFA does not consider doing the same and instead choses to focus on a $3 million ‘marquee fund’ that may be able to recruit one superstar on Iniesta’s level but in the long term is not a very successful strategy.
(AAP Image/Dan Peled)
The FFA and the A-League clubs need to focus on finding the next Bruno Fornaroli, the next Bobo, the next Isias, the next Besart Berisha and the next Thomas Broich. They should be looking for players that will spend more than two seasons in the A-League and will improve in the future.
While an Iniesta will generate a spike in viewers and attendances for a season, we will never be able to stop our over-reliance on ageing superstars to generate interest in the A-League.
At work
Roar Rookie
You’re so far on the money here JB, couldn’t agree more. With the rise of Chinese and MLS money, I struggle to see the A League bringing someone of ADP’s statue over to our shores anytime soon.
Worried
Guest
Not here to keep you happy or agree with you! Doesn't make My Opinion any less valid than yours!
Worried
Guest
NO! They are GOOD players NOT MARQUEES! A Marquee is ALREADY well known!
pacman
Guest
Yes, 25 million Euros per annum is close to $AUD40million per annum! And here we are, pushing the envelope by offering $AUD3million per annum! This approach simply will not work, so it is time for the "suits" to come up with an approach that is not laughable.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
You're always worried Worried. The life of the football party.
Kangajets
Guest
I see a lot of complaints abt Ffa but no answers Australia is not s big economy, we can expand the league but this might be as good as it gets Personally I think we need some marquee coaching
realfootball
Guest
I agree with you Waz - this is panic and smoke screens from FFA. In effect, the FFA are letting off flares. Quick, look over here! Smoke, colour! Gallop took Edna Everidge seriously - Colour and movement, possums. That's all they understand. This conversation has been going on for years, and the sane among us, likewise, have known for years that, barring the freak event of a Del Piero, genuine marquee players are way out of the price range of any Australian club. And Del Piero came here before China's money entered the market on a serious level. I doubt he could come here now, if the situation was repeated. (Alessandro has already discovered that you can't reverse time - he found that out at SFC0. The 3 million the FFA has put up is, frankly, risible, and they know it.
Kris
Guest
$3m isn't going to get you much in the current landscape with China and the Middle East having real money to spend. The (denied) Iniesta rumours have been US $97m for 3 years in China or 25m euros a year in Japan.
Waz
Roar Rookie
Genuine marquee players cost money, the $3m The FFA are offering will barely scratch the surface. The club owners are going to have to fund it and why would they do that while the ffa insults them, starves them of funds and denies them a day in the way their competition is run?
LuckyEddie
Guest
After the season we just had I'm glad they are panicking. A lot of things need to be done quickly - play when the people play in WINTER, heavy fines for divers, more teams, genuine marquee players that put bums on seats and a more political FFA getting at the politicians and using our large numbers.
Cousin Claudio
Roar Guru
Agree what you say there Luke, but the good press the AFL and NRL and the bad press the A-League get isn't just marketing genius or $$ spend, it reflects how much money the people who own media in Australia have invested in other sports. They are protecting their investments. You can't watch any show on TV now or go to any major store now without seeing AFL this and AFL that. They are spending hundreds of million of dollars promoting their game with the fat piggy bank they got from media companies. The Victorian Rules marketing department alone has more employees than the FFA and ARU combined. We've got some good players in the A-League - marquee or not and the standard just keeps improving, but unfortunately the majority of Australia's media and not going to admit that. They just keep running the same back page stories every time a flare goes off or someone is escorted from the ground by the police. That's the way its been for the last 100 years and doesn't look like changing much.
Waz
Roar Rookie
“The marquees are coming” May be optimistic though ... The FFA are pushing this agenda, and not with the support of any clubs as far as I can see (here’s the irony, it’s the foreign owned clubs most likely to invest but Lowy has successfully alienated them - that’s Lowy’s doing!!). If no one is interested it’s simply because the return isn’t there. if say a clubs average loss is $3m PA and Honda wants $5m+ it would mean just to break even (additional $5m cost over 13 games) is another $385k in revenue per game on top of whatever a club is earning - that’s over ten thousand more people PER game plus sponsorship plus the ffa chipping in from their paltry “war chest”, it doesn’t add up ... Every day it just looks like the ffa are panicking.
Johnno
Guest
Del Piero was quality on and off the field, who cares if he wasn't the best in the A-League. He still was reliable on the pitch and gave the A-League massive exposure... And dwight yorke/heskey/robbie fowler/Harry Kewell/Tim Cahill etc were all good for the A-League to... Over the hill marquees are fine as long as they are reliable on the pitch that is good enough, as the exposure they generate for the A-League is good... Mark Yanco is a reliable import and good for the side, but on the promotions front he is not a big enough fish to draw in hype for the a-League. Romario did nothing on the field but he was awesome for exposure of the A-League in his guest stint..
Redondo
Guest
Thanks Luke - good article. It's a bit bizarre for Worried to quibble over the meaning of the word 'marquee'. I guess he'd be happier if the term was changed to 'non-cap players'. As a Sydney fan, I'd take 'non-cap' Ninkovic over 'marquee' del Piero any day. del Piero's commercial impact was short term and many fans who came to see him probably also left with him. Their opinion of the A-League is based on a kind of cultural cringe - it's not Europe so it can't be good. Name players draw marginal fans because the 'name' provides them with external validation that what they are seeing is good. I guess they don't know enough about football to judge some other way. del Piero probably did nothing to change their opinion of the A-League. In football terms, season 2 del Piero bordered on embarrassing. Even the season 1 version of del Piero was an expensive passenger for large parts of Sydney's games. At least in season 1 the novelty and the residual skills compensated to some extent. I agree with you, we should be focussed on longer-term investments in quality overseas players who can lift the standard of the league.
Luke Karapetsas
Roar Pro
Hi Worried I think it’s you that are missing the point. Marquee players are players that are talented, and if they are talented they are able to get people to watch them. The problem with our current marquees is whilst they have the talent, people simply do not know they exist. If people knew they existed, they would see that they have quality, at least on par with the superstars that come to the A-league in the later of their careers. We need to tell the rest of the Australian public of the likes of Berisha and co, they will see through these players that the A-league is not a “Mickey mouse” league but rather one with good quality games and players Whilst I agree that when these players come to Australia they are nobody’s, as time progresses people will see just how good these players are
Waz
Roar Rookie
Nah, winning with styles what did it. When they went through a tough patch crowds fell back to 8k. I take your point though, it’s not just winning that matters it’s how you win that counts (SFC prove that, they can talk themselves up all they like but no one lives the way they played the game)
Worried
Guest
Newcastle did not prove Winning puts bums on seats at all! Newcastle proved that playing a style of football with a bit of heart and committment, that alows fans to be PROUD of their team and its performances win OR lose, IS what puts "Bums" on seats!
Worried
Guest
Missing the Point! A Marquee should be a headline act! You know, someone that will bring in spectators, people who might not otherwise attend the game. A name you put on the "Marquee" out the front. Whilst Berisha and Brioch are indeed talented players, they by no-means fit the description of Marquee! Before joining the A-League both were virtually unkown or unwanted in their own countries, both came to Australia to restart faltering careers. A Marquee should be someone who is already a household name in AUSTRALIA. Players like Rooney, Toure, Buffon etc. Whilst I am in no way recommending any of these as they are all generally unavailable. The current misuse of the Marquee status by A-League clubs, is a contributor to the malaise of the competition right now, with fans being only too aware they are being conned!
Lionheart
Guest
I think Newcastle proved that winning gets bums on seats. It's worked for Brisbane in years gone. Seems it's more Sydney crowds that don't respond to a winning team.
Luke Karapetsas
Roar Pro
Thanks Fadida! Glad to hear you enjoyed it!