Edson Buddle goes to Germany; it's a mystery to me
by Steve Davis on Jan 11, 2011 10:40 AM EST
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I’ve been to Munich. Great place. If things break the right way, I’ll get there one fall, when the Bavarian beer gardens are teeming with seasonal hops and joyness. If things break the right way from there, I won’t be permanently detained in a German jail and will, in fact, be allowed to collect my passport and return quietly to the United States.
I’ve been to Nuremburg, which looks a little dated but also is full of history (some of it quite dark, as it was a primary Nazi rally point before the famous post-World War II trials.) Still, the history makes it an important place.
Smack in between sits Ingolstadt. I had never heard of this place before last week. It was just another dot on the German map.
Today it’s the new home for U.S. international forward Edson Buddle.
And I don’t get it.
Let me state right away that every man and woman on Earth has the right of freewill. Buddle is no different. He can do as he pleases, and I’m rock-solid sure that he cares not at all about what I think. That’s fine.
Still, I have the right to shrug my shoulders, throw up my hands and say, “I don’t get it!”
Buddle is a proven goal scorer here. He’s making good money (just shy of $200,000 guaranteed last year, with a promised bump coming up this year). He’s living in sunny Southern California – some would say “living the good life.”
The forecast for today in Ingolstadt, by the way: high of 40 degrees with rain and snow. That’s great weather … if you’re a duck.
The lure of European soccer really must have some limits. Right? Or maybe I’m wrong about this.
Ingolstadt resides in Germany’s second division, the 2 Bundesliga. At the bottom of the second division, that is. Sitting 17th in an 18-team league is no happy place. Relegation looms. What of Buddle then?
Being cold and miserable, isolated as an American in a room full of Europeans who need the job and the money doesn’t sound like a day at the beach.
This cannot be about improving his stock on the national team, because he just made the national team in a World Cup year. He played in the World Cup. Bob Bradley knows plenty about Edson Buddle.
I am no expert on 2 Bundesliga compensation, but I cannot imagine he’ll be earning significantly more than he does here.
By the way, Buddle turns 30 this year. So, if this move to 2 Bundesliga is about “being seen” and making his way up the totem pole of European soccer, he may be getting some bad advice. He’s nearing his expiration date as a desired commodity.
I certainly understand the allure of playing soccer in Europe. Freddie Ljungberg just had some interesting comments as he left two years of MLS soccer for Scottish giants Celtic. He liked his time in the States and even had good things to say about MLS quality. What he missed, he said, was the overriding passion for the game.
So, I do get that. But the desire to play soccer in a place that better appreciates the game surely has its limits, no?
Some journalist will get with Buddle in the near future and maybe an interview can help unravel the mystery here. Until then, I’ll just keep saying that I don’t get it.
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2x the money
I’ve seen various online reports that Buddle is getting twice the money in Germany than LA was going to give him in 2011.
Basically, it would have taken a DP level contract for LA to keep him and they didn’t want to go there for Buddle.
He could've gotten another team to DP him
If LA didn’t want to DP him then he should have just gone to another MLS club… I’m sure there were plenty who would’ve been willing to DP him.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Jan 11, 2011 12:20 PM EST up reply actions
Dammit
good call
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Jan 11, 2011 2:53 PM EST up reply actions
Buddle's thought process
I’m baffled too, Steve. There are only 2 things that could make this at all reasonable:
1. Buddle is being offered the $400K or whatever that is being rumored. In that case, he might just be thinking of stockpiling money while he can earn as a player (Buddle doesn’t have a degree to put to use once his playing days are over). I don’t know anything about FC Ingolstadt, but their sudden interest in Buddle and Adu (as well as Poland’s Artur Wichniarek, who has extensive Bundesliga experience and wouldn’t come cheap) tells me that they have more money than your normal 2.Bundesliga team.
Looking at their Wikipedia page, it says their stadium is the Audi Sportpark. If they’re bankrolled by Audi, they can afford to splash some money around to stay up.
2. Regardless of the contract on offer, Buddle perhaps sees the chance to do well in the short term and earn himself a Bundesliga deal. Ingolstadt has just 19 goals this season and are 6 points from safety. If he can score like he did in MLS, and Ingolstadt avoids relegation, he could gain the attention of the clubs that earn promotion or some of the lower-level teams that need to find goals at a low price. Maybe Buddle isn’t playing for his Ingolstadt contract, but rather the next one.
I think the story here isn't Buddle
… it’s FC Ingolstadt 04. This is just from memory, but I think I remember hearing (a few years back now) of this as an example of a creative way for a corporation (in this case, I guess Audi) getting a football club into a market they consider important, and I’d swear it’s Ingolstadt.
Per Wiki, the club was formed by a merger in ‘04 between two regionalliga clubs (i.e., when the money came in). They’ve been promoted a couple of times, rocketing up through promotion from the second tier of regional leagues to the second tier, period (fifth tier to second in four years). There’s a couple of ways to do that, but all of them not involving stacks of cash have to do with genius, which their roster and board-room do not seem to possess.
$$$
When you are teammates with David Beckham, 200K doesn’t seem like good money. In fact, if you consider he only has a 25% working span compared to the rest of us before he retires, that’s like 50K/year. Not exactly great money.
He can always come back to the second division in the US when he is old.
Agreed
And being a late bloomer, at least consistency-wise, it’s not like he’s been earning at that level all his career. He’s got a future to think about, a long post-soccer career, and he wants to get financially secure before he has to retire at 34 or so.
It’s a shame he couldn’t get paid here. I’m a bit disappointed that one of the most reliable scorers in the league couldn’t find a team willing to jump at the opportunity to give a low-level DP salary (meaning fairly little out of pocket expense) of 400-500k for one of the most reliable scorers in the league. I mean, you have to imagine a team like DC United or the San Jose Earthquakes or TFC would have loved to be able to jump on a guy like Buddle instead of a Branko Boskovic or Giovanni or Mista. Buddle’s a proven commodity.
Or I’m surprised a team like New York wouldn’t want to swing a deal to partner him up with Henry. You’d really rather have Luke Rodgers?
'Gentlemen' he said,
'I don't need your organization,
I've shined your shoes,
moved your mountains and marked your cards,
but Eden is burning.
Either get ready for elimination,
or else your heart must have the courage,
for the changing of the guards.'
