ContinueAt the end of each football season hundreds of young men from across the country are faced with the realisation that their careers may be over. While some of the biggest names in the game may decide to make themselves free agents, the vast majority have not been offered a new contract and face the very real possibility that the only career they have ever known may be coming to an end.
While the summer transfer window can be an anxious time for fans, waiting to see if there club hold on to the best players, it is a three-month period in which many footballers are desperately trying to extend their careers. With so many clubs in financial strife, there are more and more players with experience at the very top level that suddenly find themselves contemplating their futures.
Last summer Marcus Bent found himself in this exact position. The 33-year-old had played 570 games and scored 110 goals in a career that had spanned 16-years and had seen him represent some 13 different English clubs. Surely it would be a simple task for the striker to find a new club?
“I had a few offers in England but I got to the point where I didn’t want to be based up north anymore. I have a little girl who is seven and I have been away from her most of my career,” explains the man who grew up in Hammersmith, west London.
“With the way that the finances are going in football it wasn’t really worth my time and it didn’t really excite me. I was hoping something would pop up over the summer and then I was presented with the chance to come here and experience a different way of life and a different style of football. I wouldn’t say it is a dream come true, but it is something that I have always wanted to experience.”
When Bent speaks of here, he is talking about a destination some 7000 miles away from his home in London. The former Everton and Wigan striker is now plying his trade in Indonesia for the club Mitra Kukar and is having to adapt to a very different lifestyle.
Training begins at 07.30am to try and avoid the blisteringly hot sun, yet the temperature can still reach 35 degrees Celcius with humidity making it even tougher on the body. There is another session once the sun sets at 4.00pm as Bent attempts to find his fitness for the tough season ahead.
It will seem to many fans a strange decision to travel half way around the world after turning down contracts in England, so what made the club so appealing? “I have a lot of friends in football who tried to move abroad and they ended up seeing deals cancelled and fall through at the final hurdle. This was all very professional, the deal was put together extremely quickly and I have the confidence that it won’t fall apart.
“It is certainly a challenge but it is one I am looking forward to. My daughter is coming out to live with me in the coming weeks and my family have been extremely supportive. They have to be really, don’t they? That certainly makes things a little easier.”
In recent years there has been an upshot in the amount of British players willing to travel to different corners of the globe. Former Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler is currently playing in Thailand, Marlon Harewood has just finished a spell in China and Lee Hendrie also made the move to Indonesia.
“I was talking to my agent the other day, as I knew that Lee [Hendrie] came over for a while and he stayed for around three months. I’m not sure how he got on but I was saying to my agent that if players see how well I do and how quickly I adjust then it could well be an option for them. It’s getting much tougher to get a contract in England and in a couple of years, I truly believe this sort of move could become the norm.”
Having quizzed the forward on the reasons why he made the move to Indonesia the next logical step is to find out how he is finding the cultural differences. With the exception of one player from Serbia and one from Cameroon, the squad is made up of local players who speak very little English.
“The language barrier does make it difficult and sometimes it is hard. I tried to order pasta and chicken at the hotel the other day and I ended up with rice and salmon. But I have come out for the experience and I have been treated really well.
“In terms of training, the players are all technically very talented. The most significant difference is the physical side, as they are just not built like us. They naturally handle the heat, which is a hurdle I am having to contend with, but they have the talent and with the finances backing them there is no reason why players cannot start to make the move to Europe.”
Rather surprisingly there is also a past acquaintance of Marcus’ at the club. Current coach and former manager of the Phillipines, Simon McMenemy was the man that recommended the vastly experienced striker and is another Brit hoping to advance the game in Indonesia.
“It’s a bit of a strange story,” begins Bent, who explains how he first met McMenemy. “I went to a Catholic School and we used to have huge sports days with other schools form across the country. We briefly met as I was playing football and Simon was playing badminton for England.
“Our paths have never crossed since but he is here, and it has made it slightly easier to adapt as he has been out here a while. He is away the minute though as he is doing his UEFA ‘A’ Badge, but fortunately his wife is here so I have another English person to help me out.”
After joking for a while about what he misses from home; “I’m certainly not missing the cold weather or the traffic, I’ll call you back in two weeks time with a whole list”, the conversation soon turns to what it is like living in a remote part of Indonesia. It would perhaps be an understatement to say that it is a million miles from home.
“I’m about three hours away from the main airport which is how I would travel to Jakarta where most of the westerners and ex-pats live. It’s a huge country with plenty of pollution and it is the rainy season, so it can be dangerous for the houses made out of nothing but wood. There is certainly plenty of poverty and then you have a lot of wealth but they live side by side. It’s quite hard to describe but it has certainly made me appreciate what we have back home.”
With the season just a few weeks from starting, time will soon tell if this has been the right move for the likeable and charming Marcus Bent. With so many clubs in England in financial turmoil, the amount of players making the move abroad will almost certainly increase. If these footballers are as bright and head strong as Bent then there is no reason why they cannot be a success.
Marcus Bent is represented by the Wasserman Media Group, the leading sports marketing and entertainment company.