This particular word, Marquee Player, is stuck in my head with excitement these days. The moment I come across these words, I can’t help but to scan through the entire article trying to locate a new player’s name which I can relate to this symbolic English word.
As far as I can remember, the earliest in the most recent years, Chinese Super League started the craze by snapping up “hi-end” players straight from top European leagues. Former Chelsea’s striking duo, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka signed for Chinese teams which saw their pop-star status raising rapidly in Asia. Be it for commercial purpose or genuine football reason, it’s secondary for most of the football fanatics here in this part of the world to be honest.
Former Juventus’s striker, Alessandro Del Piero followed next by signing for A-League’s Sydney FC. Together with the Italian legend, former England International, Emile Heskey and Japan International, Shinji Ono, signed for their respective Australian teams too.
To bring the top level football nearer to Singapore, Malaysian team, Johor Darul Takzim also introduced top Spanish striker, Daniel Guiza and Italian, Simone Del Nero into the Malaysian Super League.
Recently, Singapore’s S-League has also welcomed former World Cup Japan International, Kazuyuki Toda, who had just signed for SAF FC as a Marquee Player! In less than a month to the S-League kick-off, we are expecting a couple more big name signings for sure.
It is absolutely true that some of the players mentioned might be at the end of their prime or probably past their prime, but no one would disagree that these players remain the best in their positions even at this age. If their stamina is not something which you would be impressed, their experience, just that slight few seconds with the ball, would certainly make you crazy and justify your 90 minutes at the stand. And that’s probably what we need at this part of the world to continue to improve.
For a small country like Singapore, S-League certainly needs that experience and professionalism to move a notch up to match the rest. Welcome the Marquee Players to our league, welcome the Experienced Players to our league. As a matter of fact, I am feeling extremely excited and looking forward to the start of this 2013 football season!
Photo: theaustralian.com.au
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