Three Marquee Players That Have Played In The A-League
- Written by News Co
The salary cap that is used in the A-League ensures that the competition within the division always remains high.
Two marquee players are able to be brought in by clubs that are exempt from the salary cap rules, and that has led to a vast number of huge global stars playing their football in Australia.
Despite that, A-League does not have the budgets that Chinese SL and USA MLS has to attract poster superstars of the sport.
Still, there are some of stars that have amazed fans during their time in the A-League as marquee players. Here are our top picks.
Alessandro Del Piero
Of all the names that have joined the A-League, there are none bigger than Italian superstar Alessandro Del Piero. Del Piero spent the majority of his career in Serie A with Juventus, after he joined to the club in 1993.
He was a pivotal player in the club’s success, as he was captain for eleven seasons. If LeBron and Kobe are the greatest Lakers of all time in NBA, Del Piero, alongside Pirlo and Nedved were players that left a long lasting legacy in Torino.
Del Piero left the club as their leading goalscorer and appearance maker. He scored 290 goals in 705 games for the Old Lady.
During his time with the Italian giants, he won everything that was available. He won the Serie A title on six occasions, and also claimed success in the Champions League, Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup. However, after leaving Juventus in 2013, he went on to join Sydney FC for a two-year stint.
He played in 48 games for Sydney, and scored 24 goals, which was an impressive record of a goal every other game. He wasn’t finished and ended his career with a short stint in the Indian league.
Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler is still referred to as ‘God’ on Merseyside, where he became a Liverpool legend across two stints with the club. He rose through the youth team with the Reds, and made his Liverpool debut in 1993.
Fowler scored 120 goals in 236 appearances with the club during his first stint, which helped the club to win the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup in 2001.
Fowler would go on to play for Leeds United and Manchester City, before returning for one final season with Liverpool.
After scoring eight goals in 30 games, he left Anfield to end his English career with Cardiff City and then Blackburn Rovers. In 2009, he decided to move to Australia, where he would enjoy two successful seasons. His first season came with the North Queensland Fury, where he scored nine goals in 26 games.
He won the Player of the Year award with the club in 2009-10, but contract disputes meant that he played the following season with Perth Glory. Fowler ended his only season with the club as the top scorer, as he scored nine goals in 28 games.
Tim Cahill
There aren’t bigger names in the history of Australian football than Tim Cahill, and after a stellar career in Europe, he returned to Australia for one season in the A-League. Cahill never played in the A-League prior to 2016, as he made his first professional appearance in the second-tier in England for Millwall.
During a six-year stint with the club, he would become a legend at The Den. However, he left the club to play regular first-team football in the Premier League, which he managed to achieve during a famous eight-year stay with Everton.
He was a pivotal part of the competitive David Moyes side that regularly qualified for the Europa League. However, after stints in the MLS and Chinese Super League, he returned home in 2016 to play for a season with Melbourne City.
He scored eleven goals in 28 games for Melbourne, as the team won the FFA Cup. His final two seasons in football saw him play for Millwall FC and then Jamshedpur FC in the Indian Super League.
Here are our top 3 picks for marquee players who have crossed paths with the A-League.
We hope for the Aussie league to be able to attract more and more talent in the next years and that will eventually help the Socceroos to do better in future World Cups.
