By scott21 - 18 Feb 2017 6:00 PM
Ange Postecoglou reveals that Australia has lost its reputation as a talent factory for Europe
Socceroos boss Ange Postecoglou has revealed that Australia has lost its reputation as a talent factory for Europe, after returning from his scouting mission.
Few European football types knew his current crop of Socceroos, instead referring to the mainly retired golden generation.
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Postecoglou has been vocal in calling for A-League expansion to unlock the senior bottleneck for young players.
The Socceroos, who have a challenge to qualify for their fourth straight FIFA World Cup, are a team regarded as greater than the sum of their parts and Postecoglou hoped positive results could help change perceptions.
“We’ve got limited opportunities here but there’s also limited opportunities overseas for young players now as well,’’ Postecoglou said.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost a little bit of our standing as a developer of talent.
Being over in Europe now, we don’t register on our radar as much as we used to.
“There reference points are still (Mark) Viduka, (Harry) Kewell, (Mark) Bresciano, (Mark) Schwarzer, (Vince) Grella. Apart from Aaron (Mooy) making some waves, again that’s in the Championship, we don’t register that highly for them to say ‘let’s have a close look at Australian players’ and potentially open some doors up that way.
Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were known globally.
“We’re in a difficult spot where the well is drying up on both sides, domestically and internationally. It’s really about opportunities and how we can open doors up.
“Maybe if we can make an impact at national team level, if that’s at a World Cup or a Confederations Cup, that might raise the heads of people from around the world who might start looking at us a little more closely as a league and as a nation as developers of talent but at the moment neither is happening.’’
While Dylan Pierias, 16, last week became the first millennial-born kid to play in the A-League, he is an exception.
Postecoglou said youngsters can’t afford to make mistakes in the cut-throat 10-team A-League, compared to the National Soccer League which usually had 14 Australian teams.
Aaron Mooy has impressed for Huddersfield in the English Championship. Picture: Getty Images
“There aren’t that many actually playing,’’ he said.
“The ones that do get a regular game, unfortunately because of the limited opportunities, they don’t get a chance to make mistakes, mature and blossom into the players that they could potentially be.
“Usually if they make mistakes, in our league because of the limited number of spots, they miss out the following week.
“Somebody like a (Brandon) Borello is beginning to mature now. Brisbane have persisted with him, coped with his inconsistencies and still given him fairly regular game time.
“He seems to be coming along quite well, the issue is we don’t have too many at this stage.”
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/socceroos/ange-postecoglou-reveals-that-australia-has-lost-its-reputation-as-a-talent-factory-for-europe/news-story/8982b175caf506ddf13cc28b25e096ee
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By Barca4Life - 28 Feb 2017 11:38 AM
@TheFans, The dutch league is still one of the best development leagues in europe Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV have a great track record of exporting its best talents to all leagues around europe so your wrong.
Have they lost their ways since the 90s and even early 2000's? Yes but still its got a great reputation as Decentric said they are revamping its youth development system again so we will probably see them produce top talent again like they once did in the distant future,
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