Football, AFL, League and Union..the winner is..
Who is the highest paid footballer, in any code, in Australia?
It used to be Union's Matt Giteau (Western Force) some thought maybe Chris Judd (AFL) or maybe Willie Mason (Rugby League).
Well, it's an A-League player, an Australian. As of this morning it's John Aloisi who has just signed with Sydney FC.
What an interesting message that sends to our sports fans across this wide brown land!
4 comments:
On the surface this might seem like a good thing for the sport.
However what worries me is the syndrome of a few clubs having all the best players and making the competition lopsided like we see all round the world.
Maybe we should look at a draft system like the AFL has which guarantees the newest talent is spread around and it has the effect of evening up the competition.
I think the A-League showed this year that close competition brings out the fans and adds a level of excitement definitely missing when one or two teams dominate the league.
Hats
agreed it is a worry. How can Sydney affored Mark Bridge ($160,000 reported salary) Simon Colosimo and John Aloisi.
and of course although we have a salary cap, some clubs can use it all, plus the $450,000 available for service agreements, others won't even spend the $1.8mill cap
if all teams could recruit three such players. of Sydney's quality, this season what a league we would have. But there isn't the depth or the money.
and with Sydney continuing to make a loss their recruitment strategy must surely cause some concern.
Still Juninho maybe off to the Mariners but I'm worried that the wages are starting to drift upwards when clubs Perth $2.8m Newcastle $2m and Sydney ??? are already losing dosh.
is aloisi worth 1.4 mil? good player, very respectable career. but is it really value for money? his biggest contribution to the grand final seemed to be yelling at the ref.
also, if aloisi is worth 1.4mil, then what is Griffith worth? not adam, the nutsack hitting one. its a hypothetical, but for mine, if djite hadn`t spent a chunk of last year injured, i`d take him over aloisi.
seems like sydney is going on the premise, "you gotta spend money to make money".
i hope sydney are good to enough to get the punters through the gates to pay for aloisi and co ...
agreed, the boom - bust cycle of earlier times (and the american nasl) is a danger.
is he worth $1.4m...hardly but if Sydney win the league and he'd have to be the top scorer in the league if he plays all year.
To me it's a big concern. Will he attract crowds? But if Sydney wins the league and he scores 15 goals, I guess he may be worth it.
also if the Mariners offered $1mill that should have been enough to encourage loyalty..clearly not.
Another example of Aussies coming back and desperate to help the local game...if the price is right:)
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