The value of foreign-developed players: What Football Australia can learn from Morocco for Socceroos success
Morocco is not the only nation to find success with a large contingent of foreign-developed players - and the Socceroos can join that list.
Harry Kewell’s hot domestic form in Turkey has been widely acknowledged in newspaper reports, TV sport segments and the like, but his total number of ‘goals scored’ this season remains strangely varied.
There’s been figures suggesting he’s scored five goals this season for Galatasaray, some others have said he’s scored seven goals, eight goals, six goals, nine goals and so on?
It’s quite perplexing really why there’s so much discrepancy.
But his hot form has led to many Australian football fans calling for him to play up front for the Socceroos and that’s the main issue.
Nevertheless, I noticed this odd trend of contrasting reports so I went about some research to get the full story.
It certainly seemed odd to me that big media outlets could get basic statistics so wrong. I mean, if there’s differing reports, surely someone’s wrong and someone’s right?
But a good source for this info is the increasingly popular Euroos site, which is run by The Roar’s own Ben Somerford.
Along with some additional research via ESPN Soccernet, I can conclude Harry has actually scored 10 goals for Galatasaray this season.
Five came in the Super League, four in the Europa League and one in the Turkish Cup.
That’s the equal best out of all our Aussies in Europe, alongside the recently snubbed Scott McDonald of Celtic.
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Morocco is not the only nation to find success with a large contingent of foreign-developed players - and the Socceroos can join that list.
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