Playing for their futures: the tournament giving unemployed footballers a lifeline
By Nick Ames (The Guardian, UK)Around 60 out-of-contract players, including the former Chelsea midfielder Jiri Jarosik, competed in the finals of the Fifpro Tournament in the Netherlands in the hope of finding a club for the new season
Team CAFH from the Czech Republic won the Fifpro Tournament with a squad that included the former Norwich striker David Strihavka as well as Jiri Jarosik.“The last thing I said to them was: ‘Please, no accidents. Whatever you do, just don’t get injured.’” Marketa Haindlova is watching France snap into a tentative Czech Republic team and things will get worse before they improve. Eight minutes into the second half, the French defender Clevid Dikamona launches into a gruesome tackle on right-winger Daniel Vesely and is unceremoniously sent off. Vesely writhes in pain and Haindlova, the president of the Czech Association of Football Players, is swiftly to her feet, taut with concern. The margins are too thin here for anything but a swift recovery; the consequences of a long-term lay-off bear no imagining.
Vesely does recover and the Czechs proceed to win 3-1. The collective achievement is impressive but the ramifications of what occurs here in Rijnsburg, half an hour south-west of Amsterdam, will be felt entirely by the individuals competing in front of a handful of scouts and curious locals. Around 60 of them are in the semi-finals of the annual Fifpro Tournament, run by the world players’ union, which has been played on a knockout basis over the summer between teams representing 18 European countries. All are footballers by profession and each has his own story: a handful have been to the very top; most would simply like a guaranteed monthly wage. The one thing all have in common is that they are unemployed.
“It’s an opportunity to feel like a footballer again,” says Cristóbal Márquez, a former Villarreal midfielder who has travelled to the Netherlands with the Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE) squad. Cristóbal spent a year out of the game during a contractual dispute with the Ukrainian side Karpaty Lviv. He won his claim but has since struggled to rebuild his career during spells in New Zealand, Greece and Indonesia.
Team AFE watch with the coaches hoping they will get a chance to come off the bench and show what they can do“If you have time out and clubs cannot see you play, you are easily forgotten. Here, they can see that you still know how to do it – that you still have something valuable to offer.”
AFE is peerless in the depth of its provision for out-of-contract footballers. Its squad are refreshed constantly: an entirely different set of players and staff will contest a series of friendlies against Segunda División opponents over the next two weeks, and the fact 64 of the last 70 players selected before the Fifpro Tournament found employers points to its surfeit of available talent as well. All of its players have been offered to Indian Super League clubs before the new season in October and half a dozen could make the journey. Whether or not their future is already mapped out, a long run here is an exercise in maintaining fitness and discipline.
“You can see the change since we started the tournament in 2005,” says Tijs Tummers, Fifpro’s head of player services. “It used to be that a player would be taken on trial by a club but had gained a few kilograms over the summer. We were told: ‘Sorry, we couldn’t judge him because he wasn’t fully fit’ so many times. Now, if you join one of these squads for training, you’ll be fit and ready to go for whoever wants you. If they pick you, you come for a week, maybe more, of intensive work and it’s a big advantage. The fact you have played here shows that you are fit, ambitious and have a good attitude.”
The Spain coach, Óscar Arpón – for whom this is an equally important shop window – concurs: “This is easier than coaching players at a club. The players are all motivated, expectant and desperate to be here.”
Fifpro points out the cart cannot precede the horse. Players’ unions are invited to participate in the tournament only when their domestic services are deemed sufficient.
“We love the tournament but really this is about providing services for your unemployed players on a wider level,” Tummers says. “We tell countries to set these services up at home, organise matches and training camps and show us what they’ve done. Then, as an extra, you can have a place here.”
That was the reward given to the Czechs, whose players’ union is only four years old, this time around and their debut had taken in victories over Romania, Portugal and Switzerland before the finals weekend in Rijnsburg. Their squad are perhaps the most mixed of the four involved and as well as the former Norwich striker David Strihavka, who captains the side, they include the former Chelsea and Celtic midfielder Jiri Jarosik – who is 37 and most recently played for Alavés.
“He met the guys by coincidence when they were travelling on the plane to Lisbon for the Portugal game earlier this month,” Haindlova says. “They had a chat and he said: ‘OK, I don’t have a club at the moment so I’d love to come with you for a couple of weeks.’
A Czech player, right, is challenged by an opponent from France’s Team UNFP in a tournament where injury can be catastrophic.“It is really positive for the guys to play alongside him. Most of them – I’d say 90% – have had problems with clubs not paying them on time, which has contributed to their being here. But I think about half of them already have offers, and from my experience most of them will find a club.”
Playing alongside the occasional big name can add conviction to the quests of players who, much as they may not show it, have often had their pride hurt. “Luís Boa Morte played here for Portugal once and his influence was interesting,” Tummers says. “It was a case of: ‘If he’s doing it then we don’t have to be ashamed either.’”
Jarosik plays in central defence during the Czechs’ win against a France team who include the former Charlton and Portsmouth midfielder Therry Racon and, playing against his home country, the former Southampton and Brest midfielder Mario Licka. The standard is mixed, perhaps reflecting that former top-flight players are consorting with players of far lesser standing. Jiri Kabele, a Czech midfielder whose most recent football has been in his country’s third tier, is one of the more impressive performers but is among those who feel this is their last chance to make a living from the sport.
“I’ve made some mistakes with my decisions about joining clubs in the past, and here we are,” says Kabele, who has also played in Hungary, Slovakia and India. “I’m 28 now so if I don’t get a club I’ll find some work, maybe as an engineer or for my sister’s business, and play part-time. But I’m open to anything. I’m not out of hope – I’ve had a good career and after being together with this squad for five weeks now I feel ready.
“Many of us didn’t really know each other but we have all come together and it’s a really positive atmosphere. You cannot cry, sit in the corner or wait for something. You need to show the best of yourself and have faith. The players are positive and joking in the dressing room; nobody is sad.”
The stands are not packed with trenchcoated figures scribbling into notebooks but no one is shouting into a void. While scouts from the Dutch clubs Heerenveen and RKC Waalwijk are present, along with a couple of representatives from German clubs, information will be more widely disseminated by Scout7, a Birmingham-based company which has sent two employees to feed the week’s events into its online recruiting tool used by a client base of around 150 clubs. Nowadays, a piece of brilliance produced in this tiny arena can fly into inboxes worldwide within hours.
The Team UNFP dressing room is a nervous place as the French players hope a moment of brilliance will alert the world to their skills.Strihavka, who scores the Czechs’ third goal against France with a smart backheel and leads the line exceptionally, is 32 and admits his last move – to Racing Beirut in Lebanon – was “for the money”. He says he has five or six offers on the table, and later elaborates he is likely to accept one from an upwardly mobile Italian club but has postponed negotiations in order to see the Fifpro Tournament through.
“I said to all of them that I want to finish this project first,” he says. “I’m motivated to show the young guys that we can achieve something quite unusual. It’s a new project for our footballers and an important one to set an example in. I’m happy with the offers I have but I want to help the others get what they deserve too.”
The Czechs stay to watch the AFE team, inspired by the former Real Oviedo forward Nacho Rodríguez and the 34-year-old Carlos Martínez, beat Poland 4-0 and confirm their place in the final. Later, in the hotel where all four teams are staying, they joke with the defeated Licka, who trained with them for two weeks before honouring a promise to join the French and whose father, Werner – by coincidence – coaches the team. “You really want to play with those guys now?” comes a shout. “Put me in the team for the final if you want,” is the response.
They will not need him, ending Spain’s attempt to retain the trophy two days later with a penalty shootout win that owes much to an injury-time equaliser from Jarosik.
Their victory – in a tournament whose format, expanded to celebrate Fifpro’s 50th anniversary, is likely to alter next year – is a remarkable one in its context and testament to a squad whose visible unity belies their short life.
Perhaps the Professional Footballers’ Association, which entered a young team in 2005 but has pursued its own support structures since, might look again at the benefits this kind of competition brings, although English players’ financial expectations would render them off-radar to most scouts from lower-profile foreign leagues. In the end, the tournament’s bottom line is to provide tangible and realistic benefits for those who need them.
“If a 22-year-old footballer comes here and is still a professional player 10 years later, then the Fifpro Tournament has done its job,” Tummers says. “That is the real success for us.”
