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. 

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

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.

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.

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. 

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 .

no there isn't .

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.

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

fair enough.

Mac-n-cheese taken?

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

Replaced Jmac with BigMac :)

He obviously also goes by the name Royale with Cheese.

:)

@ Feed the Bronx

How old is Brisbane's squad?

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

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. 

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

"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.

Waz demanding facts 

Must be full moon 

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?

Should've just brought back Reinaldo. 

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 ....