England’s stranglehold on Europe’s youth
Whilst Manchester United fans were jumping out their seat in the third minute of injury time against Aston Villa, Lazio fans will have been cursing their television screens as Federico ‘Kiko’ Macheda turned neatly and curled the ball into the net to relight Manchester United’s chance of winning the Premiership.
Macheda, a product of the Lazio youth academy, is yet another example of how Italian and Spanish clubs are struggling to keep their top youth players and are losing out to English teams.
In England, once a player turns 17 he can sign a professional contract, however the age is 18 for Italian and Spanish teams. That year make a huge difference.
A professional contract means a bigger wage, an earlier start and quite possibly a bigger chance of success – it also means stability for the player and his family. Macheda was offered a reported £70,000 a year to sign – a decision of which he and his family were unlikely to turn down.
Most people hadn’t heard of Federico Macheda – and why would they? Six more months until he even turns 18, the impact he has made already is bigger than some players make in their first three or four years at a club. But whilst Lazio fans are angry, Roma fans will be outraged – robbed of the heir to the Totti dynasty, Davide Petrucci will be another introduced into the Manchester United team within the next year. It’s a kick in the teeth for Rome and Italy – comparable to Manchester United getting deprived for their next Ryan Giggs or David Beckham – there’s undoubtedly an element of unfairness.
Marcello Trotta of Napoli has voices his concerns over losing a bunch of players to Manchester City.
“There are rules that don’t safeguard clubs”
And he’s right, the current rules in place don’t.
Italian clubs aren’t the only ones losing out. Even top youth academies such as Barcelona’s fail to hold onto their youth as big contracts come in from across the channel. Cesc Fabregas is the obvious one, but there are a lot more and Spanish clubs will be totalling the damage done.
All that the clubs are entitled to financially is a ‘training fee’ – a nominal amount. It won’t, however, be the money that is driving these clubs crazy – it’s the fact that they’re losing out on their brightest starts – they’re losing the future of their clubs.
Is this just a case of what goes around comes around though?
Italian and Spanish clubs have unrivalled access to the South American players of which they can nurture into their team easily with smaller language and cultural barriers – the players are born to play in Italy and Spain. English clubs however face this culture barrier coupled with the struggle to gain a work permit – the problem stretches beyond football and is evidence of an ever-increasing political aspect to the modern game.
This situation does no good however for England producing their own talent, and the national team will suffer, but as the focus shifts more and more towards the club teams it’s English teams and the Premier League who will prosper.
The number of foreign born young players in English academies is amazing. Maybe that would not be such a bad thing for English football if some of their young players were in major youth teams elsewhere in Europe?
Football should be in line with the legal system. So it is right that a player should have to qualify for a work permit to play in the UK, but also right that they can play from 16 as a professional. Does anyone know what the rules are for employment in Spain and Italy? Can a 16 year old leave school and begin full time employment?
As far as Macheda is concerned, it was a great turn and finish. He played well up until that point as well I thought – very dangerous, looks a good prospect.
Macheda’s goal was a stunner
I remember reading something about Chelsea trying to sign Giuseppe Giovinco from Juventus, Sebastian’s little brother, but as far as I know the club stepped in due his young age.
How did the club step in?
Clubs like Lazio and Roma are claiming they’ve done everything to keep them there – talk to their parents, to the player but they just can’t stop them as they don’t actually own the player contractually like they would when he was 18 on a professional contract.
I think it’s incredibly unfair in the sense that it’s a one way thing – however as I mentioned that from South America to Europe is a one way thing as well although South American teams due get a fairly large fee.
Lets be honest for a minute. A club like Roma or Lazio might have the chance to keep the player if he loves the club and money is not as important as it would be for a South American or East European player.
Granted – South American’s are trained to be sold on and this has been the case for years now – they resent it but accept it and therefore can exploit it.
Lazio apparently did all they could to secure Macheda’s services including talking to him and his family but they’re going to lose out on the basis that Man Utd can offer financial security to him and his family whereas Lazio cannot.
The fact is that this is all new to Italian and Spanish clubs (in the last five years especially) and they’re shocked and can’t stop it – which makes it worse as historically they’re not used to losing players like these. If this was in their culture earlier on they may have not seen so much of Del Piero and Baggio etc.
There is something grossly unfair about the whole thing. Can’t imagine how Ferguson would react if they lost out on a star player in the same way from their youth team? They have nicked young players from other youth teams within the UK as well. Is it a European problem or just the attraction of a major club?
Dare say Macheda would have joined Milan or Juventus had they offered to support his family. Looking at players who have signed for Manchester United or Arsenal is probably not that relevant, as most players would love to sign for a big team like that.
There are however, a number of young players signing for mid table Premier League teams like Tottenham or Manchester City which maybe should be questioned? There should be a level playing field, but seems to me that the Italian and Spanish governments are the only people in a position from which to do anything about it.
I’m still reeling from the ‘the impact he has made already is bigger than some players make in their first three or four years at a club.’ comment
Perhaps one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve ever heard when the guy has barely completed 90 minutes yet!
I did enjoy the rest of the article though and agree its unfair foreign teams lose their top players!
Have to disagree with Mr Atkinson – why should it be questioned if top young players are signing for Tottenham and Man City but not Man Utd and Arsenal?
John,
First of all thanks for the comment – much appreciated to have some debate on here…
My comment about Macheda making more of an impact than other players do in three years may have been me getting caught up in the moment – however consider this:
Frazier Campbell – a very promising prospect for Manchester United has been at the club three years now. He’s played twice, scored no goals for them and has been out on loan three times. I consider the impact he’s made to Manchester United in that time lower than that of Macheda’s especially when you consider Macheda has turned 1 point into 3 on two occasions now. If Manchester United win the league by 2 or 3 points doesn’t that mean he’s made a big impact?
I don’t want to play down the work that players do between 16 and 20 but some people just hit centre stage faster than others – Wayne Rooney another good example. I don’t think it necessarily matters the length of the time someone has played – I think it’s also what they do in the time that they are given.
I think it’s inevitable that there isn’t a level playing for European football right now. It’s always been the case. I remember watching Barcelona hammer Manchester United at the Nou Camp while Cantona and Schmeichel watched from the stands because of the foreign player rule thinking it was ridiculous. Generally people don’t complain very much when the current imbalance is working out in their favour. Personally I’m not paricularly enjoying English football trawling Europe for its best players and monopolising Europe. I remember when it was an adventure, when players like Rivaldo, Figo and Ronaldo had a mystique to them. We feared them, were in awe of them, it made the games in Europe exciting. Now we have seen players like Shevchenko and Ballack up close and realised they aren’t as good as we thought. We’re used to winning everything, the latter stages of the Champions League are almost identical to the FA Cup. Pillaging Europe of its prized assets is a bit like using the cheat codes on Grand Theft Auto, you’re winning but it just doesn’t feel as good. Last season’s penalty shoot out toss up in Moscow seemed a million miles from the glorious achievements of 1999 and 2005. Perhaps inequality is inevitable and we should enjoy our period of success while it lasts.
John, I wasn’t hinting at some sort of top club bias, just that you can see why a player would want to play for Manchester United. That I would expect a player to choose Roma, Juventus or Barcelona over Tottenham or Man City was my point. That they quite often don’t suggests something should be done perhaps?
Steve, does that mean that you think Liverpool or Chelsea would be Champions were it not for Macheda? He looks promising, though I hope he has big shoulders, there’s an awful lot of pressure on him already.
Alex, know exactly what you mean, some of the lustre has gone. How is European football any different if we see the games we can see weekly anyway? Which team/country do you think would dominate if the foreign player rule was re-introduced?
Steve – I dont know how you interpreted that I may think that Liverpool or Chelsea would be champions were it not been for Macheda – far too extreme. I was just hightlighting the impact he has made is considerable and maybe things might look a bit different now at the top of the Premiership.
I think the most we can say is that he’s made two major contributions at a vital stage in the season. I think credit also has to go to Ferguson here for introducing him to the scene at that time – you’re right though he’s going to have to big shoulders as the pressure’s now on.
Steven, I was amused by your Fraizer Campbell comparison and while there is some merit in what you say (Macheda has had more impact in his first 2 games then Campbell probably had in his first 2) that is where the comparison has to stop.
Yes the 2 important goals he has scored are no doubt invaluable in the title run in but lets keep our feet on the ground here, the lad has played 60 minutes of football? To say the impact can be compared to that of any player who has played for 3 or 4 years… well I honestly would’ve laughed if I hadn’t thought you were serious!
Have noticed a little Man Utd bias in your articles which I guess is natural as a Man Utd fan, but I would encourage you to try and be objective as possible as it could spoil some otherwise interesting topics, afterall, I doubt after Freddy Sears scored on his West Ham debut you were raving quite as enthusiastically, then again perhaps a young english lad isn’t as attractive or exciting as a young italian?
John,
I’m a big fan of Freddy Sears as was particularly impressed with his debut and following games and I’m sure we’ll see him in the future – I like the West Ham set up, producing quality English talent – if only they could hold on to them.
I think the reason why we seem to be split on this impact issue is because we have a slightly different intrepretation of it.
Let me explain myself – Impact to me is the effect and range of the actions that Macheda had. The effect? Well it could mean Man Utd win the title (sure there are a million other reasons why they will or won’t) at the least it gave them a boost the right time – I consider the Villa game an important moment in the season. Range? Well we know the global audience that Manchester United reach – it’s probably the biggest in the world and also a big force in Europe. The fact he’s Italian also means there’s a vested interest from Italy and I imagine Spanish clubs will be looking on mainly due to the point I make about young talent going abroad in this article.
I’d also like you to appreciate the fact I said “some” rather than “most”, if I’d have said most then I’d feel there’s more room to criticise as I’d be talking about having a bigger impact than 90% of the players – this isn’t the case though.
We are perhaps dwelling on the wrong part of this article which is about English clubs poaching foreign talent and it is an interesting topic.
The point I was trying to make to you was not to let your passion for Man Utd influence your writing as you are likely to turn off neutral readers by accidently writing a ‘World Football Blog through the eyes of a Man Utd fan’
Macheda’s impact in those 2 games is definately as significant as any we have seen from any youngster in the past few years but by your own admission you got a little carried away, I’m just saying be careful, the more impact than some players make in 3 or 4 years comment was a poor one really and as I’m writing this I can only think of one 17 year old playing in single game it could possibly apply to… Pele’s goals were of course scored in the World Cup Final, which as we all know is every 4 years
As for Macheda, I look forward to see what he does next, 2 games so far and so far so good, lets see what else he’s got…
Agreed – definately have gone off topic. I think to isolate that one comment is a bit unfair though – when writing I thought the talking points would be:
“And he’s right, the current rules in place don’t.”
If you’re talking about bias, I’m clearly against English teams taking players from Italy, I dont think it’s fair even though Man U have and will continue to benefit from it.
The next talking point, to ensure I’m not bias toward Italy & Spain is a comment made about South American starting with -
“Is this just a case of what goes around comes around though?”
Trying to say that Italy & Spain have unrivalled access to the South America with players such as Kaka and Messi not coming anywhere near England.
I’m very open about my support of Man Utd and my preference to them but sometimes I feel it can be exploited by people focusing on the wrong points (not just in what I write, but what most people write about on the web) of an article to generate off topic discussion about a lack of objectivity and missing the point of the article altogether – I of course don’t make it easy when I put a comment that ruffles feathers – note taken.
Does anyone have any views on the fairness/legitimacy regarding the subject of the article?
For Steven Jones: I found this article and comments with a Google search “Lazio Youth Academy”. Very impressed with the detail and commentary on the Euro young player transfer issues. Can you answer me by email to ask you some questions I have about work permits and youth players entering Euro academies?