Beware J. League... the Emirates are coming!
Wednesday, 01 October 08, 08:22 PM · Comments(4)
I read an interesting piece by Jesse Fink over at The Roar the other day about the A-League's current struggle to attract fans through the turnstiles. While I found myself nodding in agreement as usual with the Finkster, his suggestion that the A-League might scour the J. League for some talent got me thinking about just who from these shores would prove useful Down Under.
My first thought was Nagoya's out-of-contract, not-necessarily-wanting-to-return-to-Norway, goal-every-other-game former international Frode Johnsen. The big blonde bomber has not only been one of the most consistent goalscorers in Japanese football since his switch from ex-UEFA Champions League mainstays Rosenborg, he's also one of the nicest blokes going around. His salary might prove a stumbling block - something tells me that Toyota-backed Nagoya have a fair bit of bling to throw around - but he strikes me as the kind of bloke for whom a nice sea change by the beach with the wife and kids would not affect his strong work ethic and ability to find the net with monotonous regularity.
Then I turned my thoughts to Consadole Sapporo's hapless Brazilian Davi. The agile striker has been a joy to watch (for non-Sapporo fans, at least) as he struggles to rein in his combustible temperament in the midst of the total incompetence of his team-mates. The former Vitoria striker was one of the best in J2 last season, but the fact that he is now the top-flight's second-top scorer despite only playing twenty games speaks volumes for his quality - and the majority of his goals have been sights to behold, as well.
Davi is clearly the type of player that attracts fans through the gates - I know I was looking forward to seeing him when he came to Nihondaira Stadium last month - but then I remembered the rumours coming out of the Japanese press that several teams in the Gulf States are looking at luring some of the J. League's foreign stars to the Middle-East.
Australians already know about one of them. Emerson has been at the centre of a legal wrangle over his eligibility to play for Qatar in World Cup qualifiers for months, but before his reincarnation as a Qatari-goal getter, the Brazilian-born striker was a regular goalscorer for Urawa Reds. Emerson arguably set the trend for J. League players cashing in their yen and heading to the Middle-East, but Magno Alves upped the stakes when he walked out on Gamba Osaka to join Saudi side Al-Ittihad just days after the Osakans had lifted the League Cup in 2007.
The next Gamba striker to lob up at the Emirates Airlines express check-in desk was Baré, who booked himself a one-way flight to Dubai to link up with Al-Ahli. Gamba Osaka banked a cool six million euros for their end of the deal, but the simple fact is that the J. League is slowly but surely losing some of its best.
The departure of some of the J. League's Brazilian stars may ultimately help Japanese football. As it currently stands the Japanese national team has chronic problems in attack, with coach Takeshi Okada admitting that Japanese strikers in the J. League struggle in comparison to their Brazilian counterparts - many of whom spend half the time hogging the ball, and the other half berating their team-mates for not passing to them.
It's a hard stretch to see any Japanese players willing to sacrifice a generous salary, comfortable lifestyle and familiar culture to test their skills in the A-League, and suggestions that the J. League will "raid the A-League" for players next season seem wide of the mark given the extensive scouting network that most Japanese clubs employ in Brazil - not to mention the historical success of Koreans in the J. League.
A more realistic appraisal might be that the J. League becomes a kind of second-tier league - at least in terms of cash-flow - as it struggles to keep up with the oil-rich Emirates. Already the J. League is considered by many to be the most professional of Asian leagues, but a substantial injection of cash could gradually change things in the Gulf.
The J. League will always continue to attract skillful foreigners, but whether they are of the same calibre as players like Emerson and Baré remains to be seen. The departure of some of the limelight-grabbing Brazilians from Japanese football may ultimately be a good thing - at least for the Japanese national team - but with the A-League now a new player on the block and competing with Japan and the K-League for supplies of talent, the J. League will do well to keep an eye on the ball, lest the focus of Asian club football makes a seismic shift west.
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Good point, which reminds me while watching the few J League games that I manage to catch live, sometimes I wonder why a few of the foreigners were signed. Never really stood out. But that could be down to my severe lack of knowledge of the league anyway.
What I do enjoy about the J League (and in general, those that receive much less coverage, if any) are that there are more open games, which does not necessarily mean there's less quality. Perhaps the Japanese culture really does prevent many of their players from 'standing out' in terms of hogging limelights.
interesting point about j-league fans being loyal rather than merely wanting to be entertained. the j-league might not be completely happy with the number of supporters (if only we could get more blue samurai fans interested!), but the people who do follow the league are great fans.
when i saw fink`s piece, my first thought was that IF something like he was proposing happened, we would be going down that "entertainment only" path. we`d have a country full of fairweather fans who don`t really get what they are seeing. and they`ll be gone as soon as a new circus rolls into town.
some aussie examples. recent AFL champions Sydney could never really get their city to fall in love with them. now they are just another good side, and a big chunk of their fanbase has evaporated. (for non-aussie - the AFL is generally popular in the south and the west of australia - rugby league in the east. the sydney AFL team was moved to sydney to try to win over a rugby league city).
i thought rugby union made the same folly. they tried to strike out and become more popular, but their attempt to "be entertainment" has bombed, and gotten traditional fans offside.
so i like how the j-league is going. given the quality of the local players, bitpart foreign players (rather than stars) is no bad thing.
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Never really know what the locals think of the J League, but will they start skipping the games if the foreigners are not as 'limelight grabbing' as say, the Brazilians?
Nah, no way... but it's a good point you've brought up (and the crux of Jesse Fink's argument as to why A-League crowds are down).
There's still a sense of local identity here in Japan that has been lost in a lot of other footballing countries. Supporters tend to be particularly loyal - there's not that sense that crowds turn out solely to be "entertained."
It's also partly because some of the foreigners who turn up in Japan are generally unknown when they get here in the first place.
Back when the J. League kicked off guys like Gary Lineker, Pierre Littbarski, Dunga and Toto Schillachi were obviously household names even before they arrived in Japan.
But foreigners that have had a big impact more recently like Washington, Cho Jae-Jin and even Frode Johnsen are not necessarily too well known in Japan before they get here. So it's not like an extra 5,000 fans suddenly turn up because they're excited by the prospect of seeing a new Brazilian play for their team.
That said the foreign players that are here - while not always the fulcrum of their teams - generally bring with them some degree of skill that might otherwise be lacking in the league (goal-scoring being the most obvious).
Certain clubs have learned the cost of poor scouting with a series of disastrous Brazilian signings ("hello again to everyone over at Go! Go! Omiya Ardija!") and it would be a shame if the J. League suddenly found itself financially hampered when it came to signing quality foreign players.