Not making this up. Kamara is a 19-year old product of the New York Red Bulls system and Sliema are a Maltese first division club. http://redbulls.american-soccer-news.com/?p=1318
I don't know, but having been there and seen stadiums for professional clubs that were smaller than municipal stadiums for youth teams here in France, I'm surprised it's not a semi-pro league. And people sure did look at me funny when I started asking around about buying a Maltese national team jersey. I did end up finding one, though.
I don't get why this guy is getting bashed for playing in a professional league in Malta, yet nothing is said about "yanks abroad" in the German amateur leagues.
I don't think anyone's "bashing" anyone here. Folks are understandably curious since it's a small league in a small country. Nothing out of the ordinary in our forum, in my experience, when an American goes off the beaten path to ply his trade. In fact, these kinds of random stories constitute what's unique about our forum and a good many YA regulars appreciate that.
Currently Jordi Cruyff is playing there. They also have a Maltese First, Second and Third division. The Maltese Premier League used to be fully professional - now most players are only semi-pros I think. And, except for Liechtenstein, EVERY European country has a league. Even Monaco and the Vatican have. Andorra also has multiple divisions.
I agree with your broader point, but it bears mentioning that that the German amateur leagues are not amateur in the sense that most Americans understand the term. Players for Regionalliga (4th tier) teams and indeed many Oberliga (5th tier) teams are in fact full time professionals despite the leagues being classified as "amateur". The "amateur" classification in German does not mean the same thing as in English. Landon Donovan played in an "amateur" league when we was on the books with Leverkusen. I'm pretty sure he was getting paid, though. Who's bashing this guy, anyway? I didn't see that in any previous posts.
It's in the mail and will clear, I promise, if you hold it until I tell you to cash it. Pretty decent-looking website here ... http://www.maltafootball.com/ League table here ... http://www.maltafootball.com/tables-statistics/premier-league/
Well, thanks to DMN we also talk Kreisklasse here, which is amateur by any standard . However - neither the German 4th or 5th division is fully professional. The 3rd tier Regionalliga was, but since it's only the 4th division anymore only a few teams are fully pro, most are semi-pro, some teams are amateur. I don't know if there is any 5th division team thats fully professional, some players are, particularily in the Eastern leagues. Most 5th division sides are partly semi-pro/partly amateur, with some clubs being fully amateur. Even Bundesliga reserve sides aren't fully professional, the younger players often still go to school.
If you don't leave school early you get your high school diploma with 19 or 20 in Germany (I got mine 3 months before my 20th birthday), and then there's a year of military (or civil) service. Some players who are sure to make it as pros leave school early (you can with 16) and dont get an advanced degree, others stay in school. I went to school with later Germany international Tobias Rau during his first year as a pro. Not much different from being semi-pro, but instead of another job it's school or national service.
how many German pros actually have an Abitur (high school diploma) though? You used to be able to count them on one hand.
Fascinating. The amazing thing about these types of signings isn't that Sliema Wanderers are a small club -- plenty of Yanks play at small clubs -- but it's so out of the way. Who referred him to Malta, who set up a trial? From the article: Are we sure that he's an American citizen? Also, what exactly is EU residency? Is it like a green card and if so, why don't we hear about it more often? PS. Paul Mariner spent a year in the Maltese league with Naxxar Lions
EU residency is basically getting a passport from an EU nation? Means you won't need work permits or stuff like that. And you won't count as a foreigner in leagues that have non-EU foreign player limits.
Okay, that's what it sounded like. But if that's true, why haven't we heard about it more often? I recall reading somewhere that Fabrice-Jean Picault had some sort of residency in Italy so that he doesn't count against Cagliari's foreigner limit. It sounds nifty. So why don't more Americans go after this? The article about Kamara implied that it would be easier to get EU residency in Malta, which is why he bypassed Swiss, Italian, and Cypriot clubs.
I was thinking along the same lines. I would have assumed that the EU would set a standard (e.g., 2-year minimum) to qualify for that mythical "EU" passport. Right now, many of our better young players are limited becuase they don't have a (sometimes quite distant) "EU" relative they can hang their EU career opportunity hat on. It would be very attractive to play for a year or two in a country (Malta?) that fast-tracked players to "EU" citizenship.
Well, this could never happen for many complicated reasons, not the least of which being that EU member states want to preserve some degree of sovereignty and, hence, the ability to define their own citizenship/nationality laws. Folks simply wouldn't stand for one EU-wide, standardized citizenship law. As I understand it, Maltese citizenship isn't so easy to get since the country has rather strict residency requirements (in practice, if not in theory) and Malta has been at the forefront of debates on clandestine immigration, asylum, and citizenship/residency issues since it entered the EU. Not that Kamara's situation is analogous to that of an undocumented laborer, but simply that he might have an easier go of it in a country like Belgium. In short, Malta ain't fast-tracking anybody to citizenship. And anyway, I think fast-track citizenship for sporting purposes happens less often in Europe than it might seem at first glance.
Quite a few - it's a bit hard to come by the infos, but with google and wikipedia I found at least 14 recent internationals with an advanced degree, but I didn't go through everyone (as there are so many degrees in Germany I counted Abitur and Fachhochschulreife here, which allow you to go to college - the other degrees aren't uncommon but would usually be finished before players get into senior football).
I guess my post needed to be more precise. I wasn't suggesting that the EU force everyone to set the same standard for citizenship but that they set a floor, a minimum standard, so that some small country could not set itself up as a passport shop. Like Belgium!
I've looked up Maltese citizenship and he isn't getting it unless a parent or relative was born in Malta. If you've lived in the country for at least 5 years you can obtain citizenship but your chances are slim. Preference is given to people who were born in Malta, have a maltese parent, or those who have lived in the country for over 18 years.
Haven't you anything better to do than to keep popping in here early every morning and asking a lot of fool questions? But, yes.