AFTER a week of speculation, confirmations, retractions and negotiations, it's official: Alessandro Del Piero has signed for Sydney FC to become the highest-paid footballer of any code to play in Australia.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/ci ... z25fbUfIaX
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/a-league/ciao-4m-del-piero-signs-for-two-years-20120905-25exy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-League
http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/aleague
Football (soccer) in Australia is a curious sport. When I was a kid growing up, soccer was played by kids who weren't good enough to get picked for "real" footy, and the first generation kids from southern and eastern Europe. The A-league, for you folk back in the mother country, is nothing more than a backwater of a competition that occasionally produces a few kids that end up playing in Belgium or the Netherlands, usually. The league itself has unger gone several reincarnations. Long gone are the days of the NSL when clubs had ethnic affiliations to various groups that often had conflict with one another, especially during the early 1990's. A few riots later, that all changed and the league was revamped (Americanised) to the cheeseball product we have today.
Del Piero isn't the first big name to move down under. Dwight York and Robbie Fowler have made appearances. Harry Kewell is really the only homegrown big name to have featured. No doubt others will follow as the money available slowly improves. That said, I'm not expecting Samuel E'to or Didier Drogba to come on down any time soon. Del Piero has signed a 2 year contract. My guess is that he'll retire after the first year. Still, a good signing for sydney, and if he manages to raise the profile of the game in a market dominated by Aussie Rules and Rugby League, good luck to him.
Need more players like him.
