Your Club’s Former Player now Playing in an Obscure League Part 1
By Jim James
Hello all, and welcome back to the blog. Sorry for the absence, I was just taking a break to focus on other things. However, we’re back! Whenever a player leaves your team, you simply forget about them, especially if they’re a bad youngster or a long overdue departure. However, these players can go on to have very nomadic careers in many a-country, and these can be very interesting. We’ll be doing the top 15 clubs in the UEFA Club Coefficient, because we don’t have all day. Also, the same player can’t appear twice on this list for likely obvious reasons. Let’s begin
Arsenal: Alex Song
Club: AS Arta/Solar 7
League: Djibouti 1st Tier
Clubs since leaving: Barcelona, West Ham, Rubin Kazan, FC Sion
This is the player who inspired me to make this article. I bet you didn’t know Alex Song was still player, I certainly didn’t. However, he is only 34 but certainly peaked early. In 2012 at 24 years old he was sold to Barcelona, where his career fell off a cliff. He rarely played, and a lackluster loan spell at West Ham put the nail in the coffin. In 2016 at just 28 he was sold to Rubin Kazan for less than the price of an Oh Henry bar, released on January Deadline Day 2018, picked up by FC Sion in August of that year, released by Sion in March 2020, and picked up by AS Arta/Solar 7 in November 2020, where he has been ever since. The way things have gone at his last 2 clubs, he should be released this summer, but who knows.
Ajax: Roly Bonevacia
Club: Al-Tadamon SC
League: Kuwait
Clubs since leaving: Roda JC, Wellington Phoenix, Western Sydney Wanderers, Al-Faisaly, Fujairah SC
You know a league is bad when there’s no relegation in it, but that’s the case for the Kuwait Premier League, the league that Al-Tadamon plays in. The 30-year old got just 2 appearances for the senior team and was sold at just 21, but he has had an odd career. During his time at Ajax, he had a loan to NAC Breda, introducing him to the Eriedivisie, then in 2014 got sold to Roda JC. However, it is the land down under where he has the most expertise. He has 23 goals and 22 assists in 124 games for Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers respectively. In 2019 he got sold to Saudi club Al-Faisaly, and after a spell there and at Fujairah SC, the Dutch-born Curacaoan finds himself in Kuwait with Al-Tadamon.
Tottenham Hotspur: Toby Alderweireld
Club: Al-Duhail
League: Qatar 1st Tier
Clubs since leaving: None
I know it’s a lazy choice, but there weren’t many good picks for Spurs. There isn’t much to say here, other than he hasn’t done all that much. Moving on.
Roma: Jose Holebas
Club: Bayern Alzenau
League: Germany 5th Tier
Clubs since leaving: Watford, Olympiacos
Yes, that Jose Holebas. Most Premier League fans remember him as a backup left back for Watford for a few years. When Watford got relegated in 2020, he jumped ship, and it’s safe to say that those 1.5 years since have seen his stock drop massively. He re-joined Olympiacos in 2020, didn’t renew his contract and got released in 2021, and in September got signed by Bayern Alzenau, a team with almost the exact same logo as minisculely more famous Bayern Munich, a club in the German 5th Tier. He has done very well, getting 2 goals and 3 assists from left back in 11 appearances, which is expected to be honest.
Sevilla: Baba Diawara
Club: Al-Nasr SC
League: Oman
Clubs Since Leaving: Maritimo, Adelaide United, Mohun Bagan, RoundGlass
Baba Diawara, in his prime, was just a bang average midfielder for Sevilla who got a couple appearances a season. Just like Rony Bonevacia, he’s playing in a league with no relegation. He is most experienced in Portugal, being a Maritimo centurion, but also played stints in Australia, India, and now Oman for Al-Nasr (I didn’t misspell Al-Nassr by the way), where he joined last October.
Atletico Madrid: Alex Quillo
Club: Europa FC
League: Gibraltar 1st Tier
Clubs Since Leaving: UD Almeira, Recreativo Huelva, Lucena CF, AO Chania, Mairena
Despite spending the majority of his career playing for Non-Pro Spanish Teams, Alex Quillo has played more football in Europe than Pele. He played one Europa Conference League Qualifier with Europa FC this year. Come to think of it, I think I sold this guy on OSM and I played with Europa FC in December. Weird.
Gabriel Obertan
Club: Charlotte Independence
League: USA (USL 2nd Tier)
Clubs Since Leaving: Newcastle United, Anzhi Makhachkala, Wigan Athletic, Levski Sofia, BB Erzurumspor
This is gonna be a goodie. I could just as easily have said Keith Gillespie, who came out of retirement in 2020 at the age of 45 to join Mindwell FC, a non-league Northern Irish team and the only team in the UK made to raise awareness of Mental Health in Males, but I think that would be cheating. I instead go for Gabriel Obertan, who at 32 (Turning 33 on Saturday), has signed for Charlotte Independence FC in the 2nd Tier of the USL. I don’t think we need to go over the wasted potential of this player, he spent a year at a declining Anzhi at 27, played 6 months at Wigan at 28, then spent a year and a half in Bulgaria at 29, then Turkey at 31, and now at 32 Charlotte Independence. A true disappointment.
I know we haven’t completed it yet, but it’s late and we’re already at 1000 words. Tomorrow we’ll do Part 2, which happens to be my birthday, so woohoo! Anyway, I’m Jim James, and until next time.