Alessandro Del Piero - The A League's David Beckham?

Alessandro Del Piero. Why He Doesn’t have the Beckham Factor A-League

The Hyundai A League has its newest marquee man. Amongst much fanfare Sydney FC unveiled their new signing Alessandro Del Piero last week. The Turin legend is a worldwide superstar and the football community were immediately scrambling over themselves to anoint him the A-League’s saviour and predicting to rival that of David Beckham in the USA’s MLS. Unfortunately for Sydney FC and the A-League they’re about to learn there is only one David Beckham in football.

Alessandro Del Piero is undoubtedly the best footballer to grace Australian shores. Period. His ability on the pitch is unmatched by any player to touch down on these shores at any stage in history. Sydney FC have signed a man with over 200 Serie A goal, an incredible statistic for a player not recognised as an out and out striker. With goals against both powerhouse Milan clubs and Lazio last season Del Piero is a player still capable of hitting the dead ball sweetly and expertly finishing off chances. In fending off advances from Greek side Olympiakos and a last ditch move from Liverpool, the prized coup was incredibly splashed all over the Daily Telegraph’s back page in the week before the NRL finals. Those in the football media will have you believe that this points to an imminent explosion in football’s standing in the Australian sporting landscape. Sydney FC are bringing the Beckham effect to Australia and they’ve bet $4 million it’s going to succeed.

The way AVFTT sees it though, Sydney FC and the FFA are going to be severely underwhelmed by the off field impact Del Piero has on the wider sporting community. The only way a sportsman will have a David Beckham scale impact on a sport in Australia is if an A League club lures him down under. Alternatively the Sydney Kings could sign Michael Jordan, or Tiger Woods could spend a season playing the Australia circuit. In football there is no ‘other’ David Beckham. There is no one who matches his celebrity or media appeal and in an Anglo centric English speaking media environment the gloss will fade from Sydney FC’s newest marquee man quickly. While a much better footballer, I would expect Del Piero to match the on and off field exploits of ‘All Night’ Dwight in the Harbour city. Coming from a background in the English Premier League, which is the only domestic soccer competition popular in Australia, the Australian public was already familiar with Yorke from his Manchester United days. People and not just ‘football people’ immediately resonated with the star power of Yorke, they didn’t have to be told he was a big deal. People outside the insular footballing community and particularly those without an interest in Serie A aren’t quite sure exactly who he is or where he’s from. Of course some people might remember him from 2006 but even then Fabio Grosso holds a bigger profile in Australia. Quite simply the signing generated more interest in Turin than it did in Sydney, with blanket coverage afforded in the major newspapers and on television. By the weekend in Sydney we had articles in both major papers in which the authors admitted to having no idea who he was, now remember this is sports reporters. In a city saturated with sporting superstars, Greg Inglis, Ben Barba, David Warner and Adam Goodes amongst the many others Del Piero is not a big enough star to catapult Sydney FC to the top of the sporting landscape in the way David Beckham was able to at LA Galaxy.

Of course key indicators of Sydney’s FC success will go up. But then again, could they really go down? Afflicted with a win at all costs Waratah like mentality Sydney FC have struggled for points on the park and people in the stands over the last 12 months and Del Piero’s signing will be a massive boost in these areas. But to suggest Del Piero will have a League wide impact on the way Australians and foreigners think about the A League is laughable. Over the year plenty of people will venture out to watch Sydney play so they can tell their grandkids they watched Del Piero live but do you seriously think they will keep coming back in  numbers. While Beckham’s capture has seen the MLS flooded with quality overseas talent, Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane, Rafa Marquez and our own Tim Cahill amongst them there is simply not enough commercial support in Australia to fund such an expansion of the game. With a population of only 21 million or so there just isn’t the economics to support radical sponsorship expansion or a market for lucrative TV deals. And there is very little that a footballer from Italy can do to change that.

A View From the Top congratulates Sydney FC and its fans on Austraian soccer’s greatest signing and having never even watched a full A League game let alone attended one, I can honestly say my interest has been piqued and I have thought about getting out to the SFS. Time will tell what that leads too, but let’s not kid ourselves here, Alessandro Del Piero is no David Beckham.