OVER the last few days, a number of Jamaica's footballers have signed new contract deals with clubs in Europe.
These include midfielders Omar Daley, who had joined up with English League One championship outfit Bradford City from local team Portmore United; Khari Stephenson, in a straight Swedish Premier League switch that takes him to top club AIK Stockholm; Oneil 'Bigga' Thompson to Norwegian second-division team Notodden from Boys' Town; and Luton Shelton to English Premier League club Sheffield United from Harbour View.
Only last season, Shelton had a very successful stint in Sweden, scoring aplenty for premier league unit Helsingborg, which finished fourth, and Daley had previous stints in England.
Many other players have benefited from such opportunities in the past, mainly in Britain, and it is good to see that agents who deal with the clubs here have taken the wider European route into their market, especially the Scandinavian countries where a link had long been made with Jamaican ballers, especially those from Seba in the likes of Gerald 'Hero' Scott, Hector Wright, among others.
Feeding the footballers into those markets is also sensible because the conditions don't appear to be as stringent as Britain. Additionally, it is easier for them to gain transfers from other clubs in Europe to Britain, which appears the preferred spot.
Opportunities for development
The acquisition of contracts for these players is very good, both from an individual and national point of interest, due to the opportunities for development. This is in all aspects, from financial to just generally understanding the game and professional requirements.
Clubs here in Jamaica, have also, to a large degree, facilitated these transfers in a very big way by offering these foreign clubs ,what on the face of it and arguments that have come from within these said clubs, are really very soft terms.
Most times, they basically 'give away' these players - their assets - on whom they have invested much in their development, sometimes even from the lowest of youth levels. For others, they have to fork out some fine sums to buy them as well.
The constant cry about lack, and shortage of funds, strengthens the belief that the local clubs are really not cashing in on these transfer deals and this is how they ought to be making a vast portion of their money.
In such a competitive market, you really don't want to chase away the buyers, but even then, one would have thought that having indulged in this sort of trading activity for years, the local clubs would have, by now, worked out the formula to truly benefit from such transactions.
The movement of talent to professional leagues, especially in traditionally-strong Europe, is a real measurement of the sport and players' advancement. But only when the financial benefits start trickling down will these clubs - that are really talent factories - begin to earn from their produce.
Then they won't be left out of the loop, generating instead the influx of capital that will clearly reflect the joyous earnings that should come with the type of signings that have gone down in the past few days.
