When my former favourite player Adam Taggart left the Brisbane Roar to an unnamed Asian club, my immediate thoughts were “See you in 18 months Adam”.
We’ve seen the story so many times it’s getting a bit funny.
A player lights up the A-League, then goes to Asia or Europe, then usually fails to get a game and then comes back home and lights up the A-League again.
For Taggart, this situation has actually happened before. He started off playing for his home team the Perth Glory, played ten matches with one goal from 2010-12.
Struggling to find game time, he made a smart move to cross the Nullarbor and join the Newcastle Jets.
He played 44 games with 18 goals but the big achievement of his time there was when he won the golden boot in the 2013-14 season, with 16 goals.
This resulted in his selection in the Socceroos’ 2014 World Cup squad.
And then he decided to move to EFL Championship club Fulham. The now EPL club decided to not give him a game at all and sent him on loan to Scottish club Dundee United for the 2015-16 season, where he played seven games but failed to score a goal.
He then decided to revive his career and come back home to the Perth Glory which was a good move, like it had been for many before him. He scored 20 goals in 38 games, in two seasons, despite being hit by injury.
Adam Taggart of the Roar (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
His career had been revived, but he made the decision to again cross the Nullarbor, and join the Brisbane Roar. Despite his team sitting in ninth, he scored 11 goals in 18 games and was the subject of golden boot speculation. And now he is off to Asia. Good luck Adam.
You may wonder why he would do this. It’s been seen before, he’s had his own experience of it and decided to go down the dark road. What happened to Christian Theoharous and Golgol Mebrahtu? They had the same issue. The reason is the money.
Sadly, today in the sporting world, players are going to be less loyal and will go where the money takes them. Way before my time, but I’ve heard that in the late 60s early 70s, a player would play for the professional club he grew up near and would stick with them through thick and thin.
That isn’t really the case anymore. You just go where the money takes you even if you have to sacrifice becoming a better player.
Josh Risdon has a different story though. He started, like Taggart, at his hometown club the Perth Glory, and played 142 games there from the 2010-11 season to the 2016-17 season.
He stated that he was feeling “too comfortable” in Perth, which being a Glory fan, sounded very weird. I still feel that there was some other reason why he left that he didn’t want to talk about. Maybe he was offered more money, we’ll never know.
But instead of moving overseas, he moved to the Western Sydney Wanderers. Funnily enough, Tony Popovic was the manager of the club at the time but left before the season started. Now he is managing the Perth Glory.
Risdon did actually say that he was looking forward to working under Popovic. Well that didn’t work out too well considering Risdon would have been playing under Popovic if he stayed at the Glory to this day.
Josh Risdon (AP Photo/Tim Ireland)
At the Wanderers, he played 28 games over two season and has since established himself as the Socceroos first choice right-back.
A few weeks ago, he decided to make the next move in his career and once again, not moving overseas, but to A-League expansion club Western United (From Melbourne, not Perth). He is the club’s second signing.
Many people still believe that money isn’t the driving force for an elite footballer to move clubs. They also think about family, success and getting more game time. Maybe it’s just Australian footballers, but when you move to perhaps a bigger club, with less game time and away from home, all I can think of is money.
It’s a great feat to have such talent and stay in the A-League for so long as shockingly, the average A-League player’s wage is lower than the average wage in the Kazakhstan Premier League.
And Josh Risdon didn’t have the best youth system either. He was born and raised in a town called Bunbury which is located about two hours South of Perth and only has three football clubs. It is home to only about 30,000 people. He decided to leave school and move to Perth to get access to the academies at aged 15.
Think about if the young and upcoming footballers who have access to the academies, a wide range of clubs, multiple scouts and other things, followed in the footsteps of Josh Risdon and stayed in Australia until they were ready to move to one of the world’s big leagues. The Socceroos might actually become a better force.
For the sake of better Socceroos and not playing for money, let’s hope that people can repeat what Josh Risdon has done.
Jordan Klingsporn
Roar Guru
Sorry. I think my figure was from the city area.
Baggio
Guest
I agree with most, Rizzo should of tried his luck OS. Having seen Aussies going OS, the best league for improving Australian players straight from our local league historically has been Belgium (okon, krncivic, thompson, Farina) and Holland (Arnold, Emerton, Holman, Culina). While Kewell, Viduka and Cahill excelled in the Epl, Kewell was there from a young age, the others played in the championship, Croatia and Scotland first. Anyway, one of the problems with the a-league is the recycling of players around all the clubs and lack of investment in bringing in youth. Central coast did very well promoting youth a few years back, which everyone has forgotten. Ps..sorry to be pedantic Jordan Im a country boy originally. Bunbury has a population of 90k now.
Sydneysideliner
Roar Rookie
Do we know if he actually received any offer post-World Cup? And a follow-up question, why have we struggled to export defenders in recent years? The right-back spot in particular seems to be heavily reliant on A-league based players, when the likes of Risdon, Grant and Franjic have impressed when called upon on the world stage.
Admiral Ackbar
Guest
Risdon hasn't become a better player since he joined the Wanderers. Brandon O'Neill's a better example of that.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
I think we're all hoping Ikonomidis makes a good club choice. Avoid the ME and China as they won't improve him. Agree on Holland or Belgium. I understand Jordan may be thinking " here we go again" but Taggart has quality. He scores goals. He's only once played OS and injury ruined that. He can play at a higher level. He should go for it. It's the likes of Troisi that need to stay. Clearly not good enough for a better league he's killed his career by constantly moving. Alternately Risdon has killed his career by not trying to improve in a better league. Staying here without testing yourself is a bit lazy and unambitious, not something we want more of
Buddy
Roar Rookie
It is just possible that JR watched many other players head off overseas and come back in a relatively short period of time and maybe his interpretation of their collective experiences made him decide to look only locally? All speculation I know. Players have gone to the middle east and asian leagues and managed to earn over a million dollars just by sticking it out for 1-2 seasons before returning home to the A League with a nest egg behind them ready for that inevitable day of retirement. Meanwhile, we continue to work. I will be interested to follow the fortunes of Chris Ikonomedis now that his form and goal scoring is getting him noticed. I’d like to see him playing in the dutch or belgium leagues if they can pay him enough. Love watching him while we can though.
Franko
Guest
Lol, we need less Risdons. Home town club or go O/S IMO.
Fadida
Roar Rookie
Money is rightly a factor. Would you move states or countries to earn 5-10x more Jordan? Footballers have 10-12 peak years to try and set themselves and families/future families up for the rest of their lives. The reason players of yesteryear stayed at their home town clubs was because football paid ordinary wages. Taggart is potentially getting a million a year, 10x the sum he’d get doing a”normal” job (tattoo artist?). To supplement their wages they’d have to work down t’pit during the week. It wasn’t necessarily loyalty. With regards Risdon, it appears he lacks ambition. Is this any worse than chasing money? I suspect he likes being a big fish in a small pond. Living in WA is a weird experience. You can feel the distance from the rest of the country. Risdon was very promising when he broke through but stayed too long in Perth. He got complacent and ill disciplined. He carried too much weight but as he wasn’t pushed it didn’t matter. He then moved to WSW, not overseas surprisingly. There he was pretty average it has to be said. His next move to reignite his performance needed to be in a better league. Instead he moved sideways. For more money too I’d guess. He’s going to be an unfulfilled talent. At least the likes of Taggart (whom you clearly have a subconscious or otherwise grudge against) will know at the end they gave it a shot. Btw, his spell at Fulham was devastated by injury. Give me a player with ambition who is brave enough to try and make it to his potential over one happy to hop between A-league clubs any day. In fact I think we need less Risdons.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
He didn’t exactly set any high standards at WSW. He was already an international when he joined Wanderers but I’d argue that he maintained his position on past, not current deeds and in more recent times he was starting to be relegated through the ranks. I had high hopes for him when he travelled east as he was very good playing for Perth but he has been playing in a poor side, poor results and no real continuity at the club so not surprising he sought a move. I doubt that on this season’s form he would secure much in the way of overseas offers so hopefully this move will suit him and he will rise up again as he did in his “Glory” days.