Plenty of fluff n nonsense on this one. Yes it's not a good look that the competition is signing 38 year olds, but it is a good look that the competition is signing players straight from Serie A. The contention seems to be driving a few people nuts lol - as usual as with any visa player you won't know until he's played for a couple of months and I recon this thread will be the most bumped thread in the coming season. Why remains to be seen. And the impact on Roars average squad age replacing a 37 year old Broich with a 38 year old??? I'm only guessing but I'd say not a friggin lot lol ....

Should've just brought back Reinaldo. 

Played in the Serie A last season but not good enough for the A-League next season.

You guys are unbelievable! Why is there so much negativity on this forum?

Waz demanding facts 

Must be full moon 

"A club could pay a marquee player minimum wage if they wanted"

Whoooaaaa!!  You might be onto something there.  If the Marquee isn't even guaranteed a minimum (or any) wage then this guy might actually be paying Brisbane to play!
Would not only provide some sort of explanation, it would fit right in with Brisbane's usual off-season track record of financial accomplishments.

There used to be criteria for marquees, probably where the confusion is coming from.  Think they scrapped it years ago.

As per the A-League website, there is no criteria for a marque (designated player) see here http://www.a-league.com.au/about. A club could pay a marquee player minimum wage if they wanted. All it means is that whatever they pay the player it is not counted as part of the cap. No additional criteria. A Guest Player is a different story where the rules state that for a club to have a third player paid outside of the cap that player must by Tim Cahill. 

We had Jumpei as a marquee last season. If that's not proof there's no criteria I don't know what is.

@ Feed the Bronx

How old is Brisbane's squad?

:)

He obviously also goes by the name Royale with Cheese.

Replaced Jmac with BigMac :)

is Brisbane's squad the oldest ever assembled? it reminds me of Aloisi at Heart... the squad he build was pretty old. 

Mac-n-cheese taken?

fair enough.

SkySport Italia showing Massimo signing the contract at Brisbane, getting a lot of attention in Italy.
Everyone wishing him luck and telling him 'insegna calcio agli Australiani' (teach Australians about football) 
His nickname is also BigMac lol

I agree with you.
I originally had the opinion that a club could simply designate any player that they wanted as a 'Marquee' player, but something or other happened a few years back where the FFA told a team "No, we're not going to allow you to give <player xxx> marquee status". Sorry for the vagueness, I can't remember more details than that.

no there isn't .

Thank God for a voice of reason....everyone is getting hysterical about a guy because he is 38.
Teddy Sheringham was still playing and scoring for Man Utd at age 40.... in the EPL !... FFS !
This guy may turn out to be a dud ....or he may be fairly good ...or he may be brilliant...who knows ?...he hasn't even trained here yet.
As for all the Brisbane heat /humidity talk.... that is more an issue in training than games.
Most games are in the evening when the stadium is either in shade or it is night...and believe me  it will affect the players he will be playing against more than it will affect him.
People must think coaches just sign players on a whim.
Do you really think JA (or any other coach) would not have already considered all the "brilliant"  negatives you muppets keep coming up with ?
Do you really think you are all the first to think of his age ,the heat, the style of play the Roar will play with him ...etc etc etc ?
My other point is...it is a one year contract...if he succeeds JA is a genius...if he doesn't ...no real harm done ...he's gone at seasons end .....any foreign signing is a gamble, regardless of age .

I don't think that is entirely true. I think there is still criteria for marquees. They can't be massive criteria, I mean Perth Glory had Marinkovic as marquee at one point, but still. 

ahh no... maybe you should ...you obviously don't understand the difference between guest marquee and a club marquee ..
Any club can have any player at any amount as a marquee. 
However if they wish to have the FFA subsidize his wages he is a guest marquee and then the FFA have criteria as to who can be a guest marquee....pretty simple really .
Roar have not asked for any subsidy for Maccarone so can sign him and pay what they want (apparently it is only around the $450 to $500,000 mark,which isn't a lot for a marquee).
Melbourne did ask for a subsidy for Diamintina and were rejected.

Reading the comments on here, I'm not sure what to think of this signing but it is definitely interesting. I'm looking foward to seeing him play.
At the very least we are treated to see a professional from one of the most technical leagues in the world play in Australia for a season.

I watched a variety of leagues when i was younger, and always watched the EPL, Eredivisie, bundesliga, ligue 1 and serie a highlights packages when i had Setanta Sports, and then far more hours than i'd care to admit playing Manager mode in Fifa and scanning through players and i don't think i've across him.
I'm realistic and realise the league is never going to pull young up and comers but when signing a 37 year old to marquee status they should have some sort of pulling power or name FFS

The Australian summer, and the virtual walking swimming pool that is Brisbane's atmosphere, are very valid points to raise when talking about Roar signing a 38 year old Italian. We have to remember this is the same Roar club that struggled with the heat so much that they changed their away kit colour to anything not black to help with the heat. 

Morten Nordstrand, formerly of the Jerks, was quite open about how Australia was nice etc but the heat just absolutely freaking killed him. 

The guy arrives with a goalscoring record of a goal every 3 games, even over the last 4 seasons he's still scoring a goal every 3.3 games which is hardly a worrying decline, scoring 5 last season for a team that struggled to score all season (the leading scorer had 6).

So his track record is solid and stands comparison to the last Italian to come from Serie A. At 38 he matches Cahill, are we saying he should be thrown out too? And his marquee wages are less than half what WSW paid for someone with an inferior goalscoring record so who's got the better deal, wanderers or Roar?

The truth is, whether a visa player is 28 or 38 we won't know if they're a success or not until they play. It's always the same with visa players and it's going to be interesting to see who ends up with egg on their face ... either way expect this thread to be bumped a few times in the season.

I don't think Aloisi would gamble on this bloke, he's done his homework I bet so let's see. Victory in two weeks will be a good test

Maccarone's a shell of the player he used to be

Not at 38 it is not. the 29 goals over 4 seasons shows the decline. Brisbane need someone to lead the line who is going to score 15 or more in summer, mostly in Brisbane's humidity. Instead they pay marquee for a declining old man. Like I said, I always thought he was a good player back in the day but this is not a good move for Brisbane. At least Holman had good name recognition. And 5 goals from 19 appearances from the midfield isn't too bad a return.
I am sure he will score a couple and I for one will be happy to go and watch him when Brisbane come to visit, but as Cahill showed at MC, players this age can only give a team so much, and performances tend to be patchy. This is not something a club that wants to win the league can accept.

It's pretty sad that the best Roar can do is find a 38year old as their striker.It's a high risk strategy in Brisbane during summer and with a potential ACL campaign and seven over 30,not really a good plan.But I guess recruitment is not that easy.Some coaches are better than others at finding good players.Ange finding Broich and Berisha,would probably be the best recruitment so far.

Excuse me ? So you think a player who scored 7 goals in the Serie A  last season isn't worth an A-League marquee ?
Holman only scored 5 goals in the A-League last season.....and he is a marquee !
Maccarone has scored 29 goals in 98 games over the past 4 seasons in a struggling Serie A side.....and that is not enough for you ?
Name me one other marquee ever who has done that for the dollars he will be getting (and I can assure you it won't be the $2mill a season ADP got).
Firstly we don't know how much he is accepting but I am guessing it will be well below a million a season. Secondly ..if he had been scoring more than a goal every 3 games he would not be leaving Europe.
We are in European terms.... a tin pot little ,nothing league on the other side of the world.
No one who is scoring in Europe is coming here unless very big money is involved.
Its time some of you on here had a little dose of reality.
No one young ....and scoring In Europe is coming here....ever !
So the Roar have got a player who played in the Serie A last season and scored and assisted in goals ..and... knowing the Roar... for reasonable dollars.
Sounds like a bargain to me.

In fairness they've developed more young players than victory have recently