Flying Kiwis – The Transfer Window #3
Stefan Marinovic (Vancouver Whitecaps)
We have news on the All Whites numero uno! Big news in fact…
When last we heard from Uncle Tony’s favourite custodian he was weighing up whether or not to move on from Unterhaching, where he’d had such a brilliant season on the way to promotion last time, in the wake of an expanded profile for his talents and an expiring contract. He’s obviously good enough to be playing at a higher level but even if he stays he’ll still be rising into the German third division. Just a matter of what messages pop up in the inbox, really.
Unter president Manfred Schwabl then gave him a couple weeks to consider whether to take their offer or not. With their new season beginning on July 23 against Werder Bremen II, time was really starting to tick down and all.
Schwabl, July 10: “Within the next two weeks, we will know if he’ll continue here. He must now refocus after the Confed-Cup. And, of course, also evaluate one or two contract offers, which he will have certainly received. In the next two weeks. Our preference is to continue with him. He will definitely get the match-time with us.”
He goes on to say that Marinovic (nicknamed “kiwi” at the club) is a good bloke who saves his best form for the most important games. He wishes him well and understands that there’s more money available at bigger clubs but worries about the possibility of losing a key player. Nothing on which clubs are supposedly interested in him although Cluj in Romania were linked about three weeks back and he trialled with Wolverhampton at the start of the year.
Korbinian Müller had some words to say on the matter. Who’s he? He’s the backup keeper, of course. They played a friendly on the weekend, blowing a 2-0 lead to lose 3-2 against Dynamo Dresden in which Müller started.
KM: “I'm really looking forward to what he's doing. I hopeful for him personally, and for me, of course, it would be a chance to play again.”
Aaaand guess where Marinovic ended up signing?
Unbelievable. A fourth member of the Vancouver All-Whitecaps except this one here is a bloke who should stroll straight into the first team while the other three (Deklan Wynne, Francis de Vries and Myer Bevan) are still looking forward to those days as they toil in the VW2 side (de Vries captained them the other day while Bevan scored his first goal).
On the same day, the Whitecaps paid $50,000 in general allocation money to the Montreal Impact in exchange for an international roster spot because in the capitalist hive that is America (Canada in this case but they play in the MLS so yeah, their rules) there is nothing that you cannot buy or trade for. Just days earlier they’d released Italian goalie Paolo Tornaghi too and therefore needed another GK to fill out the roster. He wanted to return to Italy while the Whitecaps were having a good look at Mari already and following the Confeds Cup there was a fair bit more interest in him, forcing them to make the move.
Whitecaps Gaffer Carl Robinson: “Stefan has all the attributes that you want in a goalkeeper. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s agile, he has all the fundamentals, and he’s a winner. At only 25 years old, he has already gained a ton of playing experience in Germany, as well as internationally with New Zealand. Stefan will increase the level of competition with our keepers and we are excited to welcome him to the group.”
This doesn’t mean that he’ll go straight between the sticks though. The Whitecaps have an established number one in David Ousted who has played more than a hundred times for the club since moving from Denmark – and has been named to the MLS All Star squad a couple times. He’s a badass and despite an appropriate name for the situation, it won’t be so easy for Stefan to pry him out of there.
However… he might not have to. Marinovic has signed on until the end of next season but with club options that could keep him there up until 2020. Ousted, meanwhile, has a contract that expires at the end of the current season. While the coach has been careful to talk about Mari bringing depth and competition for places and all that, it does seem suspiciously like he’s being eyed as an eventual replacement with Ousted reportedly ready to drive a very hard bargain.
Here’s what Ousted himself had to say: “You obviously want good players on your squad and you want good players at every position. Competition for places is a big part of what makes a good team, so I think it’s healthy to get that competition here.”
Betsy Hassett (KR Reykjavik FC)
Creative midfield extraordinaire for the Football Ferns, Betsy Hassett’s career resume reads something like a who’s who of European footy clubs. She’s only 26 but already she’s had stints with Manchester City, Werder Bremen and Ajax. With Ajax this last season Betsy also got her hands on not only the league but the Dutch Cup as well – trophies, baby.
But Hassett was also one of seven players to have left the club at the conclusion of the term and having played for top quality clubs in England, Germany and Holland (as well as a quick go with Amazon Grimstad in Norway)… she’s now sorted a move to Iceland, of all places.
Right, not the obvious next step in such a career. There’s a pretty good reason for that though. While she’s featured at some of these top clubs she’s also never really been a regular. With Ajax she tended to be coming on off the bench to finish off games – she was playing but she was rarely starting. In 20 league games for Ajax she began only four of them and only once played 90 minutes. Hence why the call’s been made not to seek an extension on the deal and instead taking a step down in competition in order to seek a bit more personal fulfilment.
You know, now that Betsy’s already done a bit of this:
Being one of those pesky Scandinavian teams, KR’s season is still smack bang in the middle of things. And, ah… it could be going better. Two wins from 11 matches, only seven goals scored and a goal difference of -20. They’re not sitting in the relegation spots but they’re a lot closer to that than they are to moving up another place. They could probably use a little kiwi class in that midfield about now.
Ryan Thomas (PEC Zwolle)
There you go. After the speculation began to cool down Ryan Thomas went and signed a new two year contract with the PECers to continue along the ol’ Eredivisie path. He’s been there since 2013 and played 121 times for the Dutch club, scoring 13 goals. Lots more he can add to that resume now that he’s committed until the end of the 2018-19 season.
Ryan Thomas: “When I arrived in Zwolle four years ago, I didn’t dare dream it would be such a great adventure. With this club I have won trophies and I have also grown into an international player for my country. Since I still have room for further development and I simply have a great deal with PEC Zwolle, I’ve decided to extend my contract. I'm looking forward to the next season and can’t wait for the first league match.”
There had been talk that he’d walk away towards bigger things now, in the wake of the Confederations Cup. Thommo’s always said he wants to test himself in a top league. Also Zwolle just came off a terrible season in which they barely avoided a relegation playoff and they’ve a new gaffer coming in: John van’t Schip, of all people. Meaning Thomas might have been interested in leaving but they weren’t too interested in selling. Back in the first FK – TW edition, here’s how the Zwolle Tech Director laid it all out…
PECZ Technical Director Gerard Nijkamp: “There are two options. One is to sell for a pretty fee to a nice club. If that doesn’t happen then we want to extend his contract by one year. We discussed this with him and he’s not unsympathetic. When he returns, we’ll talk.”
And that’s exactly what’s happened. No big enough fee must’ve arrived and so Ryan’s done the fair thing and extended what would’ve been an expiring contract for an extra season. Zwolle are not a rich club. They’re a club that has to be creative to bring in their talent, usually on free transfers and occasionally looking as far as, well… New Zealand. Losing a young international that they’d developed for half a decade without even getting a fee in return woulda been kinda harsh.
Here’s what good mate Nijkamp has to say nowadays…
GN: “It goes without saying that I am very pleased with this contract extension. Ryan is a boy from the club who has experienced a strong development in his years and that growth is far from finished. This extension has been made possible by the Player Investment Fund 2.0 (SIF) with which we have been working this summer. It emphasizes once more the importance of this beautiful initiative and shows that the PEC Zwolle still has more room for action.”
Cool, man.
Zwolle won’t have any European footy this season but there’s reason to think they can get back up towards there with a few more pieces of good news like this. They’ve stocked up a bit in their midfield with some free transfers and you can always trust the PECers to spot a few clever loan deals later on in the window. Plus, you know, they just re-signed one of their fan favourites.
Watch him say a few words about it all over here.
Michael Boxall (Minnesota United)
Heeey, look what we wrote last week:
After a few visa issues slowed him down, Box finally made his Minnesota debut on the weekend – getting all 90 minutes in for a 3-0 home loss to New York Red Bulls. It wasn’t the ideal preparation, he only got back to Minnesota the night before the game having had to go chill in Canada while the visa things were sorted.
Michael Boxall: “When you come in, you want to get used to the guys and figure out and understand how each other play as quickly as possible, And I think I've really only trained with the guys two or three times the full team all together and then I haven’t really played for a month. So to want to get the fitness back and then having to spend the whole week in Canada with that stuff, it's less than ideal.”
But the coach loved him (and also Scottish winger Sam Nicholson who dealt with similar issues after signing at the same time). Boss man Jeff Heath suggested they fitted in “perfectly” and praised how committed the two were despite having had bugger all training with the team.
Bill Tuiloma (Olympique Marseille)
What’s going on with Monsieur Tui? Well after the Confederations Cup he swung on back towards Marseille and joined the first team for some preseason stuff. Hey, awesome. Great start. He had an extended holiday thanks to the Confeds but returned to join the first team on location in Switzerland.
Yet that only lasted until the reserves picked up training for the new campaign. Tuiloma was one of four professionals to be cut from the main group as they trimmed things back. Baptiste Aloé, Gaël Andonian and Antoine Rabillard were the other three. The rest of the reserves were made up largely of younger lads.
Interestingly, Rabillard was only around another week before he was shipped out on loan.
The suggestion on the other end is that Billy T will find himself out on loan too pretty soon. Another season spent trudging with the reserves is hardly what he needs at this stage in his career but he’s not good enough to crack the Ligue 1 team… not by a long shot considering some of the money that team has been spending lately. OM will be able to find a decent enough deal if it comes to that but the one thing that might cause some hesitation is that last loan spell that Tui had which really didn’t go too well, if you remember. He needs to go out and get some regular football. But it’s gotta be regular. Let’s see what happens here because things could be moving quickly behind the scenes.
UPDATE: Aaand here it is. Expect plenty more on this news in #4 if not in its own feature. Billy T in the USA, aye? The Timbers are also Jake Gleeson's team and he'll join a growing number of All Whites in the MLS.
Moses Dyer (Unattached)
Take a good look at that team sheet and you’ll notice #17 on the bench for Crewe Alexandra is a familiar name there. Dyer’s been in Europe for quite a while now trying to find himself a professional deal, you’ve really gotta admire the hustle there. Unsuccessful trials at Arendal (Norway) and Vejle (Denmark) were what they were, now he’s having a go at League Two English side Crewe.
Having played in a 1-1 draw amongst a largely Under-23 selection, Dyer then got himself on the bench to play Bury as well – also a 1-1 draw. Doesn’t appear to have played but there aren’t too many specific sources on lower league preseason friendlies. Either way he’s getting himself some interest and that’s exciting.
Other Buggers On Trial
Hey, Rory Fallon aye? Good to see the old lad still slogging away. Torquay could do a whole lot worse than the man who scored That Goal against Bahrain.
Trivenetogoal: “Here is the dribble of Niko Kirwan (blonde hair) with the players on the ground, during the first training for Mestre. Tomorrow double session, Tuesday workout in the morning and then departure for piancavallo until 29 July. The day after friendly with the A.S. Cittadella 1973.”
Yeah, that’s Niko “Son of All Black Legend John” Kirwan there, currently on trial with Serie C side AC Mestre in Italy as he tries to go pro. Niko is actually half Italian through his mother (remember when JK used to coach Italy at rugby?). After impressing in the midfield for Team Wellington it’s been a sharp rise for Young Kirwan and he’s clearly got some hefty goals in mind. Should be fun.
Meanwhile over here you may be interested to know that “Blake” happens to be former NZ U20 international Andrew Blake, doing his best to crack the Scottish Premier League. It’s been a couple weeks there now and it’s a nice place to find himself with Hibs looking to strengthen after winning promotion back up to the top flight last time out. They’ve already made a bunch of signings and are out for plenty more.
Blake’s best showing was the 81 minutes he played at right back in Hibs’ final friendly match against Berwick Rangers (a 2-0 win). Jermaine Pennant was also a triallist in that game. He also played in non-competitive matches against Civil Service Strollers and Selkirk so… fingers crossed.
And finally goalkeeper Matty Gould is having a go at Hartlepool United trying to earn a contract. The 23 year old finished up with Stourbridge lately and is after his next move. He’s the son of Jonathan Gould and grandson of Bobby Gould so that’s where his kiwi eligibility comes from, with Bobby living here now and Jonathan once a hugely respected member of the Wellington Phoenix staff, although these days he’s working for Tony Pulis at West Brom.
And since it’s always nice to finish on some good news, here’s Erik Panzer. But you don’t need to read about his journey here, follow that link to his twitter and check out his blog.
We’ll keep bringing you the good stuff as long as we’re able. If you wanna play a part in that eventuality then slap on an ad. Also, we’re on Patreon, get at it. Chur.