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Sports
Ramblings About a New Year in Soccer MICHAEL SZUBELAK Staff Writer
Monaco FC.
As they say, with a new year comes a chance for renewal - a new beginning. In the soccer world, the new year, specifically January, is a time for soccer’s dealmakers to barter and vie for player services.
With all the money floating around, there has been little else worth reporting with respect to transfers in the European market. Aside from Anelka’s move to China, coaches and management have been doing more talking and less trading as the rumour mill continues to spin out transfer gossip concerning big names like Carlos Tevez, Kaka and Neymar Santos.
The winter transfer period is when teams belonging to the English Premier League - the top professional soccer league in the world have an opportunity to revive their hopes of title glory by purchasing new game-changing talent. Some teams opt to shed excess weight by selling off players that simply did not meet expectations or did not fit into a team’s mould. By doing so, a team can make a little extra cash to sign a new prospect or save up for a bigger purchase during the summer transfer period. Some players will try to pen more lucrative deals with more lucrative clubs. Those who have spent too much time on the bench might ask to be traded to a less prominent club to gain more playing time - thereby increasing their opportunity to display their talents on the big stage. Perhaps the most visible transaction during this transfer period occurred in a soccer market hidden in the shadow of its Western neighbours. Charles Anelka, a French international with an arsenal of titles and awards under his belt, was traded from top-flight English side, Chelsea FC, to Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua for a rumoured 9.425 million (EUR) per year. This deal is somewhat representative of a recurring trend in soccer transfers. Soccer clubs have become sources of play and pride for billionaire backers. In 2008, Sheik Mansour zin Bayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates purchased Manchester City FC, which had at one point in time been a publicly listed company - a model that is all but extinct in North American professional sports (with the curious exception of the community-owned Green Bay Packers). Chelsea is owned by Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, Portsmouth is funded largely by Qatari oil money, while Queens Park Rangers is supported by a wealthy Indian and Malaysian, Lakshmi Mittal and Tony Fernandes. Elsewhere in Europe, teams struggling financially have been bailed out by big money. In Spain, CF Malaga is owned by Sheik Abdullah bin Nasser of Qatar and in France, another Qatari businessman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, backs FC Paris Saint-Germain (“PSG”) while Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev owns AS the OBITERdicta
Across the pond, Major League Soccer has succeeded in staving off the advances of PSG for L.A. Galaxy’s David Beckham, whose services, both on and off the field, helped bring the Galaxy a third MLS Cup win. As many MLS players rest in wait of the 2012 season, some of the more prominent names have been sent to Europe on loan. In Europe, players are generally loaned out for two reasons: (1) to gain on-field experience they are not obtaining with their home club; and (2) to transfer the burden of paying a player’s base salary from the home club to the target club for the period of the loan. The motives for loaning an MLS player to a European team are slightly more cunning. First, a loan move carries with it credibility implying that the MLS is developing a breeding pool of serious talent and, as such, is a league that should be taken seriously. Second, every loan to Europe raises the profile of the MLS at home and abroad. The message: not only should the MLS be taken seriously by other clubs, it’s time that North American sports enthusiasts take notice as well. Unfortunately, the only MLS players that were loaned to Europe this year are not young emerging talents, but two famous old reliables Landon Donovan and Thierry Henry. Donovan is back with his former club, the currently struggling Everton, while Henry returns to the club that represents his glory days, Arsenal FC. The new year presents an ideal opportunity for young MLS talent to get their hands dirty in some of the most competitive leagues in the world. With the end of the MLS season behind them and the new season months away, players have time on their hands to gain real soccer experience in real soccer markets. With the exception of some short training spells with some top European clubs (which are more of a PR strategy than a true attempt at professional development), MLS talent must remain content with joining their respective teams at training camp in some southern US state.
As for our beloved Canadian teams, the 2011 MLS season saw the introduction of the Vancouver Whitecaps and a total reorganization of the Toronto FC. While the Whitecaps ended the season in a chilling manner at the bottom of the MLS table, Toronto FC left 2011 behind with honest-to-goodness hope backed by actual results. The second half of the TFC season brought more non-losses then losses and painted a picture of an organized and cohesive team, a rarity for a Toronto-based team. Most importantly, the TFC progressed to the knockout stages of the North American Champions League (the baby cousin of the European Champions League). Perhaps the biggest Canadian soccer news in 2012 will be the introduction of yet another Canadian franchise to Major League Soccer. The Montreal Impact began wheeling and dealing at the beginning of October 2011 in an attempt to build a competitive team. During the MLS Expansion Draft process, they turned a few heads by calling the bluff of the Houston Dynamo and drafting star player, Brian Ching, left unprotected due to his I’d-rather-retirethen-move-to-Canada attitude. Now the Impact are either waiting for a bag of money from the Texan team or left with a very experienced and talented striker. A clear win-win situation. Further MLS expansion into Canada may yet be on the horizon, albeit a distant one. For one, FC Edmonton is a fully functioning soccer team competing in the North American Soccer League, a second division soccer league in Canada and the United States. However, Edmonton’s climate is a clear obstacle and its subversive, but growing soccer culture needs invigoration. In Ottawa, Eugene Melnyk, owner of the Senators, has expressed interest in funding a pro-soccer team, but his ambitions are hampered by the city’s lack of a soccer-specific stadium. What is clear, however, is that Canadian soccer is growing and slowly gathering momentum. The new year carries with it the potential for Canada to introduce the game of soccer to a wider audience and begin entrenching the idea of a national soccer culture and identity.
monday - january 16 - 2012