Socceroo_06
September 15th, 2006, 10:55 PM
Pack your bags, son, if you want to be the next Harry
Despite the success of the A-League, Australia's brightest young talents must still move to Europe, like rising star Kaz Patafta has, if they want to succeed on the world stage, Matthew Hall writes.
IN HOLLAND in May, before Australia's World Cup campaign kicked off, assistant coach Graham Arnold turned to Kaz Patafta and rang out a wake-up call.
"Arnie said that I wasn't even born when he was trying to get to the World Cup, so I shouldn't waste my time here," Patafta says.
Guus Hiddink, impressed with his potential, had summoned Patafta to train with the Socceroos. The 17-year-old may not have been part of Australian football's chequered past but the plan is that he's very much the future.
In Mierlo, where the Australians prepared for their trip to Germany, Patafta was a welcome sideshow while most observers concentrated on the soap opera that surrounded Harry Kewell's tender groin.
Patafta impressed in training drills, pulling tricks and ambitious skills out of his kitbag in scratch matches against players who would go on to impress at the World Cup.
With Kewell's cup participation in doubt until the last minute, a cruel but recurring question (in Australian football) was asked: is Patafta the next Kewell? The answer, of course, is no. There is but one Kewell.
But where is Australia's next big thing? Patafta brushes away suggestions he might be Australia's next football idol.
"I look up to Harry so much because he's achieved what I am going for myself," he says. "I can also relate to him, being a foreign player, by himself at a big club in Europe. Harry is one of my idols."
There's a catch: while Hiddink rated him, the Australian public has barely heard of Patafta - if at all - and, even though he captained Australia at the World Youth Championship in Peru last year, he was bizarrely unable to earn an A-League contract last season.
But Portuguese giants Benfica saw something no Australian club could and in January, Patafta signed with the legendary Eusebio's club.
The past nine months have been a rocket ride. Apart from his Socceroos cameo, the kid from Canberra survived an end-of-season cut at Benfica when 15 friends from the youth team didn't.
A fortnight ago, he was called into the club's first-team squad.
"Growing up in Canberra, it was always my dream to play in Europe," he says. "Unfortunately, I didn't get any offers from A-League clubs. It would have been ideal to get that experience at first-team level but, the way things have turned out, it has been good for me."
Under FIFA regulations, Patafta's father has to be in Lisbon with his son. Peter Patafta has an apartment and Kaz lives at Benfica's state-of-the-art training facility with the club's other foreign players.
He takes Portuguese lessons but is also being schooled in the art of survival. Football in Europe is big business and a door to opportunity.
Patafta's rivals are not just players from other teams but kids from Portugal, Mozambique, Brazil and Angola. "It's cutthroat . . . these boys have the same dream as me and the reality is that only one player will step up," Patafta says. "On the field it's competitive, even though we wear the same jersey.
"You can't hold back. You can't wait for people. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here for myself."
Hiddink called another of Australia's next big things to Holland: Kristian Sarkies, a midfielder with A-League club Melbourne Victory. Hiddink was impressed enough to consider Sarkies as a last-minute replacement for Kewell and Tim Cahill if Australia's star players did not recover from injury.
Yet, after the Socceroos training camp broke for Germany, the fates of Patafta and Sarkies split. Patafta is fast-tracked at Benfica. Sarkies struggles to get an A-League start.
Bernie Mandic, who has been Kewell's manager since the Socceroo was Patafta's age, says the lack of player development in Australia is becoming a serious issue.
"Kristian Sarkies is the only player in the A-League that I believe is ready to immediately play in Europe," Mandic says. "What he showed with the Socceroos in Holland was outstanding and the fact Guus left him as cover for Kewell and Cahill demonstrated that Hiddink thinks he is good enough for Europe.
"But, for some reason, he has not been able to get a regular start with Melbourne Victory. The same thing happened with Stuart Musialik with Newcastle last season. This sort of nonsense not only damages the player and his confidence, but it's counterproductive for the long-term future of Australian football."
Agent Leo Karis is another on the lookout for Australia's next superstar. He says Sarkies and Patafta will take different paths to the 2010 World Cup - if not just the next 12 months.
"The difference will be enormous," Karis says. "Kristian will be under pressure to help win matches for a coach who is under enormous pressure this season.
"Ernie Merrick's primary focus is to win matches because his employer demands that - not develop Sarkies, Adrian Leijer or other young players. But Patafta will be developed. He will have a technical football system instilled in him and ball control, first touch, vision and flair will form part of his development."
Mandic insists Kewell's transition from Smithfield superstar to World Cup hero was no accident. Talented Australian kids have long been seduced by a European contract and European clubs have been fast to flutter eyelids at raw talent.
However, marriages are not made in heaven, and a brief glance at the history of many A-League players shows many failed romances with clubs across Europe.
"Harry was not a fluke," Mandic says. "His father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry's career has developed.
"He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain's best youth development program.
"Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.
"I know of at least five other players who had the potential to be in our starting 11 at the World Cup - if their parents' egos and greed hadn't led them to opt for clubs that were beyond the players' ability."
Karis says unless there is a radical overhaul of local coaching systems, several possible teenage prodigies will have to go overseas.
European clubs have courted Terry Antonis since The Sun-Herald unveiled him three years ago as a 10-year-old wunderkind.
"Terry has been courted by European giants for the past two years and is an exceptional talent who will travel to Italy three or four times in the next 12 months for month-long training," Karis says.
"If the Australian coaching systems are not overhauled now, Terry will have outgrown them."
A quick fix for the FFA, struggling with the introduction of an elite youth league and overhauling youth coaching, will not be easy.
Karis believes the search for the next Kewell requires comprehensive changes to the current system.
"With a 20-player roster and just two under-20s included, as A-League rules are now, it is not possible to produce star kids," he says. "A youth league is definitely required to develop 150 to 200 players. It also requires expert technical coaching. Imagine what Guus Hiddink could do with a centralised youth policy."
Recently, in Lisbon, Patafta experienced a 24-hour high and low common to many want-to-be professionals. This time, it was a youth team coach spelling out the reality of success.
"My coach was telling me that it was tough here at Benfica and not to get upset if they loan me out to another club," Patafta says. "It was very negative talk."
The day after the reality check, that youth team coach got a phone call from the club's new head coach.
"The first team wanted me for a game," Patafta says. "It hasn't happened in a while that a youth-team player has been called up. I'm keeping my feet on the ground but it's only impossible if you tell yourself it is. It's a good feeling to prove people wrong when they don't believe you."
Despite the success of the A-League, Australia's brightest young talents must still move to Europe, like rising star Kaz Patafta has, if they want to succeed on the world stage, Matthew Hall writes.
IN HOLLAND in May, before Australia's World Cup campaign kicked off, assistant coach Graham Arnold turned to Kaz Patafta and rang out a wake-up call.
"Arnie said that I wasn't even born when he was trying to get to the World Cup, so I shouldn't waste my time here," Patafta says.
Guus Hiddink, impressed with his potential, had summoned Patafta to train with the Socceroos. The 17-year-old may not have been part of Australian football's chequered past but the plan is that he's very much the future.
In Mierlo, where the Australians prepared for their trip to Germany, Patafta was a welcome sideshow while most observers concentrated on the soap opera that surrounded Harry Kewell's tender groin.
Patafta impressed in training drills, pulling tricks and ambitious skills out of his kitbag in scratch matches against players who would go on to impress at the World Cup.
With Kewell's cup participation in doubt until the last minute, a cruel but recurring question (in Australian football) was asked: is Patafta the next Kewell? The answer, of course, is no. There is but one Kewell.
But where is Australia's next big thing? Patafta brushes away suggestions he might be Australia's next football idol.
"I look up to Harry so much because he's achieved what I am going for myself," he says. "I can also relate to him, being a foreign player, by himself at a big club in Europe. Harry is one of my idols."
There's a catch: while Hiddink rated him, the Australian public has barely heard of Patafta - if at all - and, even though he captained Australia at the World Youth Championship in Peru last year, he was bizarrely unable to earn an A-League contract last season.
But Portuguese giants Benfica saw something no Australian club could and in January, Patafta signed with the legendary Eusebio's club.
The past nine months have been a rocket ride. Apart from his Socceroos cameo, the kid from Canberra survived an end-of-season cut at Benfica when 15 friends from the youth team didn't.
A fortnight ago, he was called into the club's first-team squad.
"Growing up in Canberra, it was always my dream to play in Europe," he says. "Unfortunately, I didn't get any offers from A-League clubs. It would have been ideal to get that experience at first-team level but, the way things have turned out, it has been good for me."
Under FIFA regulations, Patafta's father has to be in Lisbon with his son. Peter Patafta has an apartment and Kaz lives at Benfica's state-of-the-art training facility with the club's other foreign players.
He takes Portuguese lessons but is also being schooled in the art of survival. Football in Europe is big business and a door to opportunity.
Patafta's rivals are not just players from other teams but kids from Portugal, Mozambique, Brazil and Angola. "It's cutthroat . . . these boys have the same dream as me and the reality is that only one player will step up," Patafta says. "On the field it's competitive, even though we wear the same jersey.
"You can't hold back. You can't wait for people. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here for myself."
Hiddink called another of Australia's next big things to Holland: Kristian Sarkies, a midfielder with A-League club Melbourne Victory. Hiddink was impressed enough to consider Sarkies as a last-minute replacement for Kewell and Tim Cahill if Australia's star players did not recover from injury.
Yet, after the Socceroos training camp broke for Germany, the fates of Patafta and Sarkies split. Patafta is fast-tracked at Benfica. Sarkies struggles to get an A-League start.
Bernie Mandic, who has been Kewell's manager since the Socceroo was Patafta's age, says the lack of player development in Australia is becoming a serious issue.
"Kristian Sarkies is the only player in the A-League that I believe is ready to immediately play in Europe," Mandic says. "What he showed with the Socceroos in Holland was outstanding and the fact Guus left him as cover for Kewell and Cahill demonstrated that Hiddink thinks he is good enough for Europe.
"But, for some reason, he has not been able to get a regular start with Melbourne Victory. The same thing happened with Stuart Musialik with Newcastle last season. This sort of nonsense not only damages the player and his confidence, but it's counterproductive for the long-term future of Australian football."
Agent Leo Karis is another on the lookout for Australia's next superstar. He says Sarkies and Patafta will take different paths to the 2010 World Cup - if not just the next 12 months.
"The difference will be enormous," Karis says. "Kristian will be under pressure to help win matches for a coach who is under enormous pressure this season.
"Ernie Merrick's primary focus is to win matches because his employer demands that - not develop Sarkies, Adrian Leijer or other young players. But Patafta will be developed. He will have a technical football system instilled in him and ball control, first touch, vision and flair will form part of his development."
Mandic insists Kewell's transition from Smithfield superstar to World Cup hero was no accident. Talented Australian kids have long been seduced by a European contract and European clubs have been fast to flutter eyelids at raw talent.
However, marriages are not made in heaven, and a brief glance at the history of many A-League players shows many failed romances with clubs across Europe.
"Harry was not a fluke," Mandic says. "His father Rod was probably the most important difference in how Harry's career has developed.
"He avoided being seduced by promises of fame and fortune from glamorous clubs and opted for Leeds, a club that was in a rebuilding phase and had Britain's best youth development program.
"Unfortunately, most parents fall for the exaggerated promises of agents and clubs and their sons pay the price.
"I know of at least five other players who had the potential to be in our starting 11 at the World Cup - if their parents' egos and greed hadn't led them to opt for clubs that were beyond the players' ability."
Karis says unless there is a radical overhaul of local coaching systems, several possible teenage prodigies will have to go overseas.
European clubs have courted Terry Antonis since The Sun-Herald unveiled him three years ago as a 10-year-old wunderkind.
"Terry has been courted by European giants for the past two years and is an exceptional talent who will travel to Italy three or four times in the next 12 months for month-long training," Karis says.
"If the Australian coaching systems are not overhauled now, Terry will have outgrown them."
A quick fix for the FFA, struggling with the introduction of an elite youth league and overhauling youth coaching, will not be easy.
Karis believes the search for the next Kewell requires comprehensive changes to the current system.
"With a 20-player roster and just two under-20s included, as A-League rules are now, it is not possible to produce star kids," he says. "A youth league is definitely required to develop 150 to 200 players. It also requires expert technical coaching. Imagine what Guus Hiddink could do with a centralised youth policy."
Recently, in Lisbon, Patafta experienced a 24-hour high and low common to many want-to-be professionals. This time, it was a youth team coach spelling out the reality of success.
"My coach was telling me that it was tough here at Benfica and not to get upset if they loan me out to another club," Patafta says. "It was very negative talk."
The day after the reality check, that youth team coach got a phone call from the club's new head coach.
"The first team wanted me for a game," Patafta says. "It hasn't happened in a while that a youth-team player has been called up. I'm keeping my feet on the ground but it's only impossible if you tell yourself it is. It's a good feeling to prove people wrong when they don't believe you."