With the news that Canadian Josh Simpson has terminated his contract with his Turkish club due to unpaid wages, we have received another sobering reminder that the lives of professional footballers in Europe are not always about glamour and huge contracts that will set them and their families up for life.
Instead, the grind in Europe can often turn out to be a battle to get paid in a country far from home.
UPDATE: On Thursday morning, it was confirmed that Josh Simpson signed with Swiss club Young Boys on a 3 1/2-year contract.
Certainly, Turkey appears as though it isn’t the best place for Canadian players to ply their trade, as Simpson’s financial dispute with Manisaspor sounds like something that is increasingly becoming par for the course in the Eurasian Republic.
In fact, all three of the prominent Canadian players who have played in the Turkish first division have now experienced similar problems with respect to getting remunerated by clubs experiencing financial difficulties.
In addition to Simpson, Mike Klukowski left his previous club Ankaragucu early in 2011 over unpaid wages. (Interestingly, Klukowski ended up signing with Manisaspor and is currently playing for the team that Simpson just left).
Almost comically, there were warning signs earlier last year when English forward Darius Vassell had literally been kicked out of his hotel room due to Ankaragucu failing to pay for his accomodations.
Following the 2011 Gold Cup, Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan transfered to Sivasspor and looked to be well on his way to solidfying the number one role with the Super Lig side. Unfortunately, rumours of financial problems at Sivasspor now abound and word out of Turkey is that Borjan could soon be headed elsewhere due the club’s rumoured struggles to pay its players.
The current off-the-field dispute between Simpson and Manisaspor has to be especially disconcerting for the Canadian forward due to the fact that his move to Turkey had been going so well on the pitch. The Victoria native was Manisaspor’s top scorer last season and had been one of the key players on the club again in the current campaign. In terms of his own personal development, Simpson had blossomed as a player in Turkey and had previously described the style of play in the Super Lig as one that was perfectly in tune with both how he likes to play and how he is most effective.
As is often the case when a player has a wage dispute, Manisaspor is now crying foul and threatening legal action against Simpson. However, it’s hard to see a player of the character of Simpson initiating an unlawful breach of contract for spurious reasons. Regardless, if the dispute goes to court and/or requires FIFA to mediate, it could have serious ramifications on the 28-year-old’s eligibility to sign with another club and play for the Canadian national team during a key phase in its World Cup qualifying cycle.
Canada’s Turkish trio of Simpson, Klukowski and Borjan are the not the first Canadian players to have to gone through these types of travails.
In fact, while it would be easy to point to the aforementioned events and simply suggest that players should stick to the more established leagues in Western European, that wouldn’t take into account the struggles of Julian de Guzman.
The Toronto FC midfielder is well known as having been the first Canadian ever to play in Spain’s La Liga, home of the richest clubs in the world and some of the most expensive players on the planet. However, it is also important to remember that a dispute over unpaid wages with Deportivo La Coruna is one of the main reasons that the 2008 Canadian Player of the Year is now playing his club soccer in Major League Soccer.
Barcelona and Real Madrid might be the undisputed wealthiest clubs on Earth, but De Guzman still had to struggle to get his rightful payment for services rendered in a country that is now classified as one of the “P.I.G.S” of Europe due to the sovereign debt problems in Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain.
While it hopefully won’t be the case, it probably isn’t a stretch to predict more of these types of wage disputes happening due to a combination of the state of the economy in Europe and the super rich teams increasing the cost of being competitive into the stratosphere. In many ways, you actually can’t help but wonder if MLS isn’t really on to something with its salary cap, cost controls and parity.
Still, ask any young soccer player what their ultimate goal lies and the answer is invariably Europe. It’s where the most glamourous teams reside and where the best players in the world are paid the most exhorbitant salaries. However, situations like the one that Simpson is now going through should function as something of a warning sign for those with stars in their eyes.
Players should still aspire to things like Champions League football and playing at the highest levels. But in an increasingly economically chaotic world, they now need to make sure that they do their economic due diligence and a moral background check on any club and league that they get involved in and stake their career health on.
With respect to Simpson specifically, Canadian soccer fans can only hope that his dispute with Manisaspor will be resolved with as little disruption to his excellent playing career as possible.
Rumours are already popping up about Simpson coming home to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps or returning to German side Kaiserslautern, so it’s going to be very interesting to see where the talented winger ends up next. Who knows? Maybe he even stays in Turkey and plays for Galatasaray or Fenerbahçe.
Steve Bottjer is a Toronto-based writer, podcaster and editor for RedNation Online, on online magazine covering all aspects of Canadian soccer. Follow RedNation Online on Twitter.