Burns and Djite: The new Australian pathway
Nathan Burns has signed for AEK Athens. Thank god it wasn't Norwegian side Brann Bergen and of course his mate Bruce Djite has aready gone to Turkey.
Good moves for our best young talent. They stayed in Australia, impresssed in the A-League, shone at times in the Asian Champions League and played a key role in getting the Olyroos to the Olympics. They have both been capped at Socceroo level.
Add Adrian Leijer and David Carney to the list.
And hopefully the rest of the young boys in Australia are watching.
As Scott Jamieson comes back to Adelaide United at just 19 from Bolton Wanderers, and Kaz Patafta came back at 18 from Benfica.
The message is strong.
Stay, earn an A-League spot, and just like in days of Mark Viduka and Brett Emerton in the old National Soccer League, if you impress here then you will always earn a good contract overseas.
Interestingly James Holland, Jason Naidovski, Luke De Veer and Matthew Borghetti are taking the A-League path.
3 comments:
this has been one of the great positives of the a-league, a better pathway for young talent to start up their careers.
the only question mark is whether unusual players will get a decent crack at home. things didn`t turn out well for patafta in portugal. but he didn`t get much of a run in melbourne either. too small. doesn`t tackle enough. etc etc. note how nick carle polarises opinions.
some will go straight over, ala spiranovic and williams. but the rest will have a chance to develop at home.
who knows, others like williams might come home to try to get things back on track, like nick ward did.
clayton
surprised Nicky Ward didn't make it, for me he was very impressive at Perth, but Melbourne seem to be reducing his effectiveness with every game.
Patafta will start to shine at the Jets I reckon.
He's already scored in the A-League, few players with his game time managed to do this. He'll come good.
Has Patafta learned to pass to his team mates yet?
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