Home-grown talent

Craig Moore is the latest Socceroo to trade-in a career overseas to come home and play in Australia.

The former Rangers, Crystal Palace, Borussia Monchengladbach and Newcastle United defender returned to his home state to join A-League club Queensland Roar for the next two seasons.

"For me it's the right time to come back and play in the A-League and I'm delighted to have signed for the club," Moore said at his unveiling.

"I'm young enough to give good service to Queensland Roar and hopefully I can make a good contribution to the league."

Moore, 31, isn't the only one who has found our shores enticing again, after playing overseas.

Ante Covic, Ljubo Milicevic, Stan Lazaridis, Danny Tiatto, Tony Popovic, Hayden Foxe, Tony Vidmar and Paul Agostino have all come back to Australia’s national competition after plying their trade in some of the best competitions in the world.

John Aloisi is another player being chased to come back home.

The A-League is growing steadily with crowds continuing to rise over the first two seasons.

Over one million fans went through the turnstiles during season one, at an average of 11,627 per game.

Champion Melbourne Victory led the way with crowd figures in version two averaging a whopping 33,288 fans a match during last season’s successful campaign.

When Melbourne Victory hosted Sydney FC at the Telstra Dome in December last year a crowd of 50,033 turned up, smashing the all-time Australian domestic football regular season crowd record by some 12,000 people.

"You'd do well to find an Australian abroad this weekend who'll play in front of a bigger crowd than that,” Victory captain Kevn Muscat said after the match.

With all that said the question remains: Are these players just coming home for a retirement package or do they really want to contribute to the A-League’s rising popularity?

I believe it’s the latter.

I caught up with Socceroos and PSV star Jason Culina just before the 2007 AFC Asian Cup and he is adamant that a lot of players will return to Australia because of the lifestyle and the level of football being played.

“I want to play at home one day but I still have a lot to achieve in Holland,” Culina said.

“I’ve really enjoyed watching the rise and the success of the A-League and would love to be a part of it.”

“Who knows dad might even sign me up for Sydney FC,” Culina added.

Hopefully every Aussie Abroad thinks like Culina (even if they don’t have Sydney FC coach Branko Culina as a father).

These players need to know that only they can continue to boost the profile of the code in this country.

Football Federations Australia’s aim should be to get as many Socceroos home as possible.

I understand a number of players have ties and links to other countries, that is understandable, and that it is good for the game that our players get experience in the top leagues of the world.

However, despite our top players being able to command big dollars in Europe, we should be trying to get them back here.

If football is to continue to flourish in this country, then guys like Mark Viduka, Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill need to be playing in front of Aussie fans on a consistent basis.

Hopefully one day this will be a reality.

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