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A general introduction to the problems African players face in the Bundesliga
and why the promising careers are to find in the third and fouth division
teams.
| New
arrivals will find it very hard to get a real Bundesliga contract |
When African players come (from the African continent) to Germany they
will find it very hard to get a contract from a Bundesliga team. Unless
they sign to play in their second team in third or fourth division or begin
as a young talent of 15 or 16 in their youth teams. There are a number
of reasons for it. In Germany the football is very athletic and a lot of
players need some time to become as strong as for example Salou Bashirou,
the Togolese striker of the Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg. Another problem
is, the player has to learn to deal with the German way of thinking on
and off the pitch. Although it is now known among the coaches that such
an 'Import' requires a special treatment, respect for the foreign culture
and the problems of getting settled in Germany, those coaches often are
unwilling to treat any member of a team different than their German (or
European) players. The language factor is another problem. There is no
country in Africa with German as official language.
| The
pressure upon Bundesliga coaches disables them to field raw talent |
In Bundesliga you don't have time. You need success immediately. You want
new players to enfold their talent right away. The Bundesliga is divided
into invisible but very seriously recepted levels of success: the clubs
which play for championship and Champions League qualification, the clubs
which play for a place in the UEFA-Cup, the clubs who search a spot in
the UI-Cup, and the ones which fight relegation. There is always pressure
to gain or regain a particular level in this class society, and it is even
not accepted just to hold the quality you have reached. A team that is
constantly placed among the first five is soon labelled a failure because
it did not win the championship and if it does it has to win the Champions
League next year. And the year after that it has to win every game with
6:0, it is the curse of the succes.
No team can take time-outs to rebuild, a coach who wishes to build
a team has to take over a newly relegated team in the second or third division.
But when he is 'too much successful' his players will be requested by the
big ones and soon he will have to rebuild in a less convenient situation.
| African
players face competitors from Europe who cope better with the circumstances |
In this context African players face competitors from other parts of the
world who do not seem to require as much input. Especially players from
Eastern Europe promise to adapt quickly and play acceptable while it is
still possible to pay them. They promise prompt help for the team and little
bad is known about their capability to adapt to German circumstances. As
well skandinavian players or players from Netherlands and Belgium are now,
after the Bosman decision of the European court, easier to take under contract.
In those players you do not have to invest and wait before they show their
talent. This talent might not be as huge but problems like for example
Cologne had with Sunday Oliseh often prevents a club from benefiting. A
player who wins you one game alone, but loses you the next one and misses
the following two because he has to play for his national selection does
not really help you to a higher level. African players have to play for
their countries on different dates and weekdays as the almost synchronised
European calender.
| Even
German talents find it very hard to gain match praxis |
But the 'victims' of the tendency towards other European players are not
the African players only: Especially the young German talents face now
little opportunity to play in the Bundesliga matches. They are taken under
contract to secure rights but when a key player gets injured it is not
them as unexperienced players who get fielded. The club will seek an immediate
replacement from somewhere on the international transfer market instead.
So the German Under 21 side has a lot of international experience, but
almost none at Bundesliga level.
Those players often only play in the replacement teams of the
Bundesliga clubs, usually playing third or fouth division (Those leagues
are split on a Regional basis into 4 (third) or 10 (fourth division) groups
of about 16 to 18 teams each and play on a mixed professional and semi-professional
basis).
| Regionalliga
seems to be the best way to play still well payed and gain attention |
These Regionalliga or Oberliga teams are the ones in which we find the
talented African players now, too. The stars of tomorrow will rather develop
here than on the bench of a Bundesliga club. The bought players are always
more accepted than the ones the club educated themselves. The coach and
the management has to prove the press, everybody else, and especially themselves,
that they had spotted a talented player and they do not know the weaknesses
of such a player as good as the ones from their own team. Of course those
player they bought had caught their eye when he was doing well not when
he was doing bad.
So, Regionalliga and Oberliga teams have more time and a smaller number
of players competiting for a spot in the first eleven. The athletic component
is not as dominant as in the second division and not as essential as in
the first although it is still very important. But in those third and fourth
division teams African players have a bigger chance to develop and learn
how to move in German football while getting cared about as well. They
can easier show their talent because a technical style of play is not as
easiliy suffocated as in the second division. (Of course there is always
an exception to a rule: the case of SC Freiburg will be introduced later
in this series). Also third division teams do not need to fear as much
as first division teams their players, once in the spotlight, might become
members of their National selections too soon.
(To which extend these observations are completely valid 'the Shot that
passed right through the net' will try to investigate on in a planned future
survey)
So the series of short partraits starts with some big talent from Regionalliga
that might encounter the fans on a much higher level in the future...
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