Your Club’s Former Player Now Playing in an Obscure League – Part 2
By Jim James
Hello all, and welcome back to the blog. Yesterday I posted Part 1 of this and due to the sheer amount of wordage I made it into two parts. If you want to know what this is all about read part 1, and here we go!
Juventus: Michele Paolucci
Club: Manitoba FC
League: Canada/USA 4th (USL 3rd)
Clubs Since leaving: Siena, Palermo, Vicenza, Latina Calcio, Petrolul, Catania, Ancona, Monopoli, Floriana, Tarxien, Valour FC
Michele Paolucci is one of the many underwhelming youth players signed by Juventus who have had nomadic careers in many countries. Despite being in Italy most of his career, he has traversed the tiers, being a nearly centurion in both Serie A and Serie B, and gathering nearly 50 appearances in Serie C. In 2015 he tried to do it in Romania, for Petrolul and got a few Liga 1 appearances. He then went back to Italy, but hasn’t played in the country in 4 years, spending his time either in Malta or Canada.
Barcelona – Jeffren
Club: Lampun Warriors SC
League: Thailand 2nd tier
Clubs Since Leaving: Sporting CP, Real Valladolid, KAS Eupen, Grasshoppers, AEK Larnica, Slaven Belupo, Al-Dhald
If you wouldn’t believe this CV, I wouldn’t blame you. Currently, Jeffren plays for a team not in the Thai 1st division, but the Thai 2nd division. I could have also gone for Juan Camara, who now plays in the Azerbaijan 1st tier, but this is just way better. In 2011 Barca sold Jeffren to Sporting, where he played 24 Portugese League Games (I’m not calling it by its name because it was different back then and it changes its name more often than I change my bedsheets), scored 5 league goals, and moved to Valladolid in 2013 where he played occasionally in a relegation season, then was a regular starter in the La Liga 2, left for Belgium in 2015 and struggled to find anywhere to call home since. He is now playing in his 7th country, still having not played in the country of his birth, Venezuela at the age of 34.
PSG – Youssouf Mulumbu
Club: FC Saint Elol
League: DR Congo
Clubs Since leaving: West Brom, Norwich, Kilmarnock, Celtic
Yes, Premier League Fans: Youssouf Mulumbu is still around and kicking. Not kicking very well, obviously but still kicking. He is one of the only players in this list to not really be a nomad. He spent 6 years at West Brom after leaving PSG, spent 2 at Norwich, and clearly has a fanbase at Kilmarnock, who have picked him up from the free agents list twice and signed him on loan from Celtic once. He joined FC Saint Elol in 2021, and appears to be winding down his career.
Real Madrid – David Mateos
Club: The Strongest
League: Bolivia 1st
Clubs Since Leaving: Ferencvaros, Orlando City, Real Murcia, Hapoel Hadera, Hapoel Raanana, Hapoel Umm al-Fahm
Playing for a club with a name like “The Strongest”, you would hope the center back can shove attackers off the ball. Mateos, like so many others on this list, has got his Frequent Flier Miles at new heights. He’s played on 3 continents, and has just been as bange average as possible.
Chelsea – Daniel Sturridge
Club: Perth Glory
League: Australia 1st
Clubs Since Leaving: Liverpool, West Brom, Trabzonspor
Again, I know the Austrialian League isn’t all that obscure, but there wasn’t very many good ones for Chelsea. The 2x Champions League Winner left Chelsea in 2013 to join Liverpool, and we don’t need a recap of the events there. In 2019 he was sold to Trabzonspor, and got 11 goal contributions in 16 appearances, a fair contribution. However, that was not the consensus in the Trabzonspor board room, as in March 2020 he was released. He wasn;t picked up until October 2021, 20 months later. For Perth Glory he’s been mostly invisible, getting 0 goal contributions in 5 games. A tragic decline for a previously great striker.
Liverpool – Ragnar Klavan
Club: Paide
League: Estonia 1st
Clubs Since Leaving: Cagliari
Yeah, sure, he’s Estonian so this isn’t too surprising to see. However, this is the most obscure league so he’ll be here. He hasn’t done much since leaving Liverpool in 2018, playing about 65 times for Cagliari, going to Paide last summer, where at 36 is in the back end of his career.
Man City – Valeri Bozhinov
Club: Septembvri Sofia
League: Bulgaria 2nd
Clubs Since Leaving: Parma, Sporting, Lecce, Hellas Verona, Vicenza, Levski Sofia, Ternana, Partizan, MZ Hakka, Lausanne Sport, HNK Rijeka, Botev Vratsa, Pescara
The man has changed clubs 24 times since leaving. I know that that number isn’t 24, but a lot of times it has been going from clubs to free agency. Despite all those transfers and leaving Man City in 2010, he hasn’t been transferred for money since 2011. They’ve either been loan transfers or free transfers. Another thing that gets Bozhinov points is that he’s not just in Bulgaria, but in the Bulgarian 2nd tier. Quite weird.
Bayern – Edson Braafheid
Club: Palm Beach
Country: USA Amateur
Clubs Since Leaving: Hoffenheim, Twente FC, Lazio, FC Utrecht, Bold FC
Edson Braafheid is a player who was looking like he was doing well until 2018 where he retired. In 2020 he went out of retirement to sign for Bold FC. Since then he’s played 14 league games and scored and assisted 0 times. Not much of anything here.
That’s it. We’re done. I hope you liked it, I certainly had fun researching these! I’m gonna enjoy the rest of my birthday now, and I’m Jim James, Until next time.