Luis Nani‘s Melbourne Victory deal demonstrates how Australia can compete with cashed-up overseas leagues

Luis Nani, winner of four Premier league titles and a Champions League with Manchester United and a European championship with Portugal, this week signed a two-year deal with Victory, marking the first big statement of intent this off-season from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL).

The APL, who run the A League Men’s and Women’s competitions, have promised to spend a portion of a $140 million private equity investment to attract names that will bring back bums on seats, and eyeballs on sets.

An air of apathy has lingered over the domestic football competition.

The APL and club owners know they can’t let the league drift further.

Now is the time to spend money to make money.

Marquees are part of the strategy and, over the 17 years of the competition, there have been some examples of rewards outdoing risk: Alessandro Del Piero, Shinji Ono, Dwight Yorke.

And there have been those who haven’t hit the mark.

Mario Jardel, once a European goal scoring machine, arrived in Newcastle so out of touch a teammate swore he was his less talented brother George. There was also Romario, the Brazilian great, whose attitude lived up to the acronym on Brazil’s famous crest: CBF.

Aside from Nani next season, Cesc Fabregas, the silky Spanish playmaker of Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona fame, is still a chance of making a move to Australia. Negotiations have gone on for over two months. The APL, clubs and agents trying to broker the deal require patience, because luring a marquee here in the first place is no easy task.

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Recruiting a globally-significant marquee to the A League is an administrative version of building a thirty-story-high Jenga tower. One wrong move, see you later. It’s a complex, nerve-shredding experience from beginning to end.

Clubs seldom seek recruits themselves. Agents from Australia will use their networks through the world to source possibilities and, once identified, it’s a process of contacting those players’ agents to start discussions.

Any player that might be considered a marquee in Australia will invariably have options.

Around a decade ago, China was a huge attraction, but the government there has fallen out of love with football, and its capitalist instincts. A fruitful region for aging stars is the Middle East. Qatar to UAE to Saudi Arabia have football-loving royals more than happy to outlay huge sums. The Indian Super League is another competition on the rise.

The emerging force, though, is Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States. Twenty-eight teams play in 20,000-to-40,000 seat stadiums. Young local products are moving to Europe for decent transfer dollars and heading the other way across the Atlantic is a steady stream of stars.

Lorenzo Insigne, Federico Bernadeschi and Giorgio Chiellini (offered to Australian clubs, who were uninterested, quizzically) all played major roles in Italy’s success at last year’s European Championships and have now moved to the MLS.

Xherdan Shaqiri has bounced around Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Inter Milan and now finds himself in Chicago, while Brazilian Douglas Costa signed with LA Galaxy and Gareth Bale is about to debut for Los Angeles’ other side.

Bale has joined LAFC. Formed in 2019, LAFC is owned by a bevy of billionaires and sporting royalty, such as Magic Johnson, and has strong connections to Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Importantly for Bale, getting a tee time at California’s best golf courses won’t be an issue with the contacts he’s made already.

The top wages in the US dwarf what Australian clubs can offer. Insigne, the Italian striker, is on $17 million a season with Toronto FC, and Shaqiri $12 million in Chicago.

MLS clubs all have hefty financial connections, which is no surprise. Forbes magazine recently estimated 735 billionaires exist in the Land Of The Free and “soccer” is booming ahead of hosting the 2026 men’s World Cup.

Australia can’t compete in a head-to-head financial fight with those regions, especially when our billionaires aren’t particularly attached to football. Forbes magazine reported there are 46 billionaires in Australia, and the only two who have been connected with the game – former FFA Chairman Frank Lowy and Gold Coast United owner Clive Palmer – have better things to do with their time and money than deal with football’s perennial squabbles.

Adding to the difficulties when it comes to offering competitive wages is a weak Aussie dollar and our tax rates. It is estimated that a $3 million outlay from an Australian club (with help from the APL marquee fund) translates into a one million Euro net contract for a player.

That’s how the language is spoken in European football terms – net, not gross. And most of the big names in Europe are looking in the ballpark of three to four million Euros net ($AUD4.5 million to 6 million)

Mario Balotelli has been mentioned as an ideal marquee target. Big player on the pitch, big personality. His name was mentioned a few months ago by agents, but he’s midway through an $AUD9 million-a-year contract in Turkey.

Australian clubs are in a market with minimal TV revenue (around $40 million a year split between 12), and all have to hire venues, where attendances have dived thanks to Covid-19 chaos.

Still, possibilities like Nani and Fabregas emerge, and Australia’s lifestyle is an attraction, as is the length of season (around 30 games, not the marathon 40-plus of Europe) and professionalism of the football programs of most clubs.

Those are selling points for the agents who make contact. Then it goes back to the APL and the clubs in Australia to see who might be interested. Clubs need to pay a big chunk of the wages, with the APL happy to chip in when there’s a clear return on investment possible.

Nani should move the needle in Melbourne.

Fabregas would, too.

The assumption was that when the Abu Dhabi royal family-funded City Football Group took over Melbourne Heart and changed them to Melbourne City, the big names would spin through Tullamarine airport year after year. Spanish striker David Villa was here for a heartbeat, while Tim Cahill’s first year was a success, but was gone at the start of the second, citing differences with the direction of the club.

That direction was pointed away from star power and toward sustainability. Accordingly, City have positioned themselves as the “dream factory” for the best young Australian talent, while spending bigger on established Australians, like Mat Leckie and Jamie Maclaren. City’s international quota (five players) is now filled by mid-tier European or South American talent.

Other big market clubs like Victory, Sydney, Western Sydney, Macarthur and newly crowned champions Western United are options for marquees. But the rest - Central Coast, Newcastle, Brisbane and Adelaide and Wellington - aren’t operating with financial models that allow for multi-million dollar splurges.

Perth Glory is something of an outlier. Depending on his mood, owner Tony Sage doesn’t mind a gamble, bringing in Daniel Sturridge last season. Sadly, Sturridge was perennially injured, and state border lockdowns made home games few and far between.

The move became a disaster.

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Some marquees work, some don’t, and some are a wild mix of both.

Not only does the player need to perform on the park, but he needs to engage with rusted-on fans, and turn heads of possible ones.

Nani, for instance, has 2.5 million social media followers Victory can leverage into something positive for the club, through shirt and ticket sales. Victory have done their due diligence, and so has the player, so nothing will be a surprise, such as Victory training in a public park near AAMI Park, somewhat different to the set up at Manchester United.

Alessandro Del Piero is regarded by all as the biggest star to ever play in the A League. As his 19-year, 500-game career at Juventus ended, Sydney FC happened to be the right place at the right time. Del Piero could have gone elsewhere in Europe (for less money) or the US or Middle East (for more money) but the mix of lifestyle, football and financial possibilities on top of a hefty $3 million wage swung the deal toward a monumental recruiting coup.

Del Piero stayed for two years, and in that time Sydney underperformed, losing more games than they won. But he filled up the highlight reel (scoring 24 goals), crowds around the country spiked with Del Piero in town, and all of Sydney’s marketing and engagement metrics went up.

Del Piero did it his way, bringing his own physio and photographer. Sydney’s training ground dressing rooms had a spare room converted to Del Piero’s personal gym. None of the players really cared as Del Piero treated them as equals, though he underestimated the multicultural nature of Australia, not realising some in the team could understand his conversations in Italian with his physio.

Sydney FC opened their training ground to allow in whoever wanted to see Del Piero in the flesh and he never turned down an autograph or picture request. Perhaps it gave him the idea for his pre-season plan before a second season in Sydney.

Not really keen on coming to Australia in August for a three-month training block, Del Piero paid for the entire squad and staff to fly to Italy and spend a training camp fortnight in the sun just north of Venice. Del Piero absorbed the cost of all flights and accommodation but in return he organised games and training sessions to be open, and acted as promoter, selling tickets and keeping the cash.

Sydney did two sessions a day for most of the trip, so Del Piero did quite well.

Again, no one really cared. The players got a great experience in Italy, where Del Piero prolonged his adoration.

Sydney’s other big-name recruit was the standard-bearer of A League marquees.

Dwight Yorke came with quite the reputation as a brilliant footballer who liked to enjoy himself. Arriving into the Harbour City, Yorke was taken aback to discover training wasn’t at the Football Stadium near to the CBD, but rather 45 minutes west at Parklea.

“I ain’t going to no Park Lane,” was his famous line. Still, ever the professional, Yorke got on with it. First on the training pitch, and last off, with his signature sit ups and push ups to end with.

His teammates loved him, especially around Christmas time in 2005. Club officials had organised an all-club get together at the property of a club owner. Problem was, Yorke had sorted a harbour cruise with his good mate Brian Lara. Some of Sydney’s players were kids on a pittance. For them it was like choosing between going to schoolies or a distant uncles’ BBQ. So the playing group went to the whole-club shindig, stayed ten minutes, politely shook hands and took off for the harbour cruise.

Times have changed and now Yorke is back in Australia to make a name for himself as a manager, taking over at Macarthur Bulls, on the south western fringe of Sydney. He doesn’t care about where the training ground is. He’s deadly serious about making it to the top, like he did as a player.

William Gallas, a Premier League-winning defender with Chelsea, joined Perth Glory in 2013 and, while he didn’t get the mass-media cut through Yorke and Del Piero got in Sydney, Glory teammates speak highly of the complete lack of ego about the Frenchman. Gallas showed his appreciation by booking out an entire pool area at the Crown Casino complex for a day-long shindig.

Jardel is, sadly, a punchline when it comes to A League marquees. The Brazilian was a phenomenal goalscorer for the first part of his career, with 130 goals in 125 games for Portuguese giants Porto.

Seven years after leaving Porto, and bouncing between clubs, Jardel was recruited by Newcastle Jets. He was horribly out of shape. Teammates couldn’t believe the size of him at their first meeting. Still, they thought his touch would be decent.

Wrong.

Jets players couldn’t believe how far off Jardel was from his lofty reputation so after a few days they discovered via the internet Jardel had a brother George. For a while at training, teammates would randomly shout, “George, GEORGE!!” just to see if there was a reflex reaction.

Mario never turned around.

Jardel was a decent guy and easy-going on everything except a buffet.

He was gone before the end of an underwhelming season in Newcastle.

Legendary striker Romario barely spent a month with Adelaide United in 2006 but the experience remains perplexing for those involved.

The 40 year-old arrived for a four-game guest stint, chasing his 1000th goal of his career and brought his own physio.

Adelaide players couldn’t understand what for. He barely ran, did as little as possible at training and barely seemed bothered. All his creaking body wanted was a goal to push him toward 1000. He did score, though many remain unconvinced he even got a touch.

Adelaide’s owners insisted Romario play those four games, even when it was clear he was a handbrake on United’s chances of success in those games. One owner even mentioned to the coaching staff he didn’t mind if they lost.

It’s a wonder the mushroom cloud of anger from coach John Kosmina couldn’t be seen from Brazil.

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The days of bloated, fading stars coming for an easy payday are thankfully gone. The work that is going into sourcing possible targets is too rigorous, and the pitfalls of getting it wrong too perilous.

And the APL knows diving into the private equity fund and sprinkling one or two marquees across the competition isn’t the panacea to build the league back up to its heightened interest years when the Del Piero show rolled into town.

A marketing plan with clarity, a better TV product and a booming matchday experience are all requirements in a marketing sense, while in a football sense, the development of young local players and coaches is of absolute importance. Sell those to the world and the cycle kicks into gear, and the A League go forward.

It’s a long road ahead.

And getting marquees for a little sugar hit along the way is a long, drawn out process.

The Nani idea for Victory was first hatched in December. Eight months on, they finally got their man. The Portuguese flyer has a reputation to live up to, measured in Australia against those who have come before him.