Contract signed until June this year
They play in the Austrian Regionalliga West (3rd tier)
Christian Ziege will be his coach!
Ollie Valentine - FC Pinzgau Saalfelden
Ziege obviously knows his football so this is promising. Austrian 3rd tier probably somewhere between pub football and a weak league, but not the worst starting point for a young kiwi. Hopefully he does really well and moves on to something bigger
Third tier football in Europe outside of the big 5 is basically pub football.
Also, I've just had a quick look, and it appears that Regionalliga West doesn't exist anymore:
According to Soccerway, they play in the Regionalliga Salzburg, one of seven regional leagues.
They are currently second on the table mind you, so if they made it to the second division things would certainly get interesting.
Not sure what the pro/rel rules are as Wikipedia still seems to think there are only 3 regional leagues:
The destination of a club relegated from the Second League depends upon which Land (state) of the Federal Republic it is a member. The relegated clubs join one of the Regionalligen (regional leagues) in the east, center or west of the country. The three regional league champions are promoted to the Second League. Participation in the professional Second League is conditional on their licensing by the fifth senate of the federal league. If the license is refused for economic reasons, one team fewer will be relegated.
According to Soccerway, they play in the Regionalliga Salzburg, one of seven regional leagues.
They are currently second on the table mind you, so if they made it to the second division things would certainly get interesting.
Not sure what the pro/rel rules are as Wikipedia still seems to think there are only 3 regional leagues:
The destination of a club relegated from the Second League depends upon which Land (state) of the Federal Republic it is a member. The relegated clubs join one of the Regionalligen (regional leagues) in the east, center or west of the country. The three regional league champions are promoted to the Second League. Participation in the professional Second League is conditional on their licensing by the fifth senate of the federal league. If the license is refused for economic reasons, one team fewer will be relegated.
The way I understand it, it gets a bit complicated, because Regionalliga West split into three different leagues, but those three leagues still only have one promotion slot that used to be Regionalliga West's. The two best teams from the three leagues play-off for that spot, so winning one of those three leagues doesn't actually guarantee even a play-off, let alone promotion.
That's right.
Pinzgau finished 2nd in their pre Xmas league, 13 points ahead of the team in 3rd, with the top two teams "going through to the next round" - a new league of only 6 teams.
The winner of this 6 team league earns to right to go up to Liga 2. All a bit complicated. Comp restarts in March.
https://us.soccerway.com/national/austria/regionalliga/20192020/elite-round/r55152/
You would think Christian Ziege would have goals beyond Austrian pub football. He once worked for the German FA (DFB) as national U19 coach, though looks like that was 6 years ago. Maybe Pinzgau are a club with ambitions, like 3rd tier Helsingor in Denmark (home of Just & Wilkins).
Be interesting to know the length of Valentine's contract. Anyway looks a pretty little town, straight out of The Sound of Music. Worse places to spend a year or so, esp if you like your snow sports.
https://twitter.com/STAGmanagement/status/1225597191340875777
https://twitter.com/OllieVa66719367
To show the football world can be small, Ziege spent 12 months as coach of Unterhaching in Germany (Liga 3 at the time) when Marinovic was there. Actually it looks like he signed big Stef to Unterhaching.
I did find it interesting that Ziege is 48 and only coaching at this level. Maybe he's just not that good as a coach?
I still think it reflects positvely on Ollie that someone like Ziege, who has a very successful career, would recruit him.
Alesssandro Ziege (son of) plays in this team. Also around 5 English speaking guys in the team (us, Canadien, poms ). I'd say pub football is a tough label. They have a player their on loan who played in the Chilian top league then MLS.
Also have just taken on loan/signed a young player from Unterhaching, who are themselves gunning for promotion from Liga 3 to Liga 2 in Germany.
Who knows who is watching, or what doors could open, for someone like Valentine if he is good enough.
I hope Valentine has a game tomorrow. He might be much in demand.
Alesssandro Ziege (son of) plays in this team. Also around 5 English speaking guys in the team (us, Canadien, poms ). I'd say pub football is a tough label. They have a player their on loan who played in the Chilian top league then MLS.
If you mean Ruiz, he played in Primera B, which is the second tier. And playing in the ground the size of Davey F now probably doesn't suggest that his career is on a sudden upward trajectory.
It does seem that there is some sort of link with the US which probably explains some of those US/Canadian players there:
The article's behind a pay wall though, and I'm not subscribing for this.
Alesssandro Ziege (son of) plays in this team. Also around 5 English speaking guys in the team (us, Canadien, poms ). I'd say pub football is a tough label. They have a player their on loan who played in the Chilian top league then MLS.
If you mean Ruiz, he played in Primera B, which is the second tier. And playing in the ground the size of Davey F now probably doesn't suggest that his career is on a sudden upward trajectory.
It does seem that there is some sort of link with the US which probably explains some of those US/Canadian players there:
The article's behind a pay wall though, and I'm not subscribing for this.
Similar vibe to FC Helsingor in Demark, where Elijah Just/Dalton Wilkins are.
"It was a team in the Austrian third division, Waibel explained. One with an interesting backstory. The club was run, in part, by a former RSL public relations officer, as well as a former season-ticket holder at Rio Tinto Stadium. They were in the process of converting Pinzgau into a club wholly owned and operated by its fans, complete with a stock exchange listing, and targeting American fans."
Alesssandro Ziege (son of) plays in this team. Also around 5 English speaking guys in the team (us, Canadien, poms ). I'd say pub football is a tough label. They have a player their on loan who played in the Chilian top league then MLS.
If you mean Ruiz, he played in Primera B, which is the second tier. And playing in the ground the size of Davey F now probably doesn't suggest that his career is on a sudden upward trajectory.
It does seem that there is some sort of link with the US which probably explains some of those US/Canadian players there:
The article's behind a pay wall though, and I'm not subscribing for this.
No, San Luis was Primera Division when he played for them. But you're missing the point, Ruiz is on loan from his MLS club ( who he has made a number of appearances for) who I'm sure aren't really in the habit of loaning their contracted players out to pub teams. Your having a laugh.
There's literally at most five countries in the world where the third tier football is at a respectable professional level, and Austria ain't one of them. RSL might be trying to turn this club into some sort of experimental playground for their squaddies/reserve players, but that doesn't change the fact of what the actual level of this league is.
There's literally at most five countries in the world where the third tier football is at a respectable professional level, and Austria ain't one of them. RSL might be trying to turn this club into some sort of experimental playground for their squaddies/reserve players, but that doesn't change the fact of what the actual level of this league is.
Wasn't trying to change that fact – just sharing some more info from the paywalled article.
Essentially NZ Central League to National League quality. Give or take.
Essentially NZ Central League to National League quality. Give or take.
Totally agree - the level would NOT be good.
This being said, being in a top team in a crappy league, and a team that has aspirations and is potentially informally affiliated with an MLS club can't be a bad thing, especially for someone his age. Hopefully he does "a Marinovic" as opposed to "a Rogerson"...
Essentially NZ Central League to National League quality. Give or take.
Austrian regional third tier the same as NZ regional second tier? You guys are delusional.
Granted its not the best pro-level, I'm not even convinced everyone would be on a livable full-time wage. However, to discount it as a pub team is unfair, and that's my issue. I don't think its Germany or Italy. I just think its not a pub team. There is an in-between.
Central league :)
Essentially NZ Central League to National League quality. Give or take.
Austrian regional third tier the same as NZ regional second tier? You guys are delusional.
Granted its not the best pro-level, I'm not even convinced everyone would be on a livable full-time wage. However, to discount it as a pub team is unfair, and that's my issue. I don't think its Germany or Italy. I just think its not a pub team. There is an in-between.
Central league :)
At its worst, the 3rd tier (regional Austrian leagues) are Second tier NZ level. At its best, it is Top tier NZ level. How does that make one delusional?
Isn't that somewhere "in-between" Professional League and Sunday pub league?
There are as many as 9 teams from 4th tier get promoted each year to 3rd tier, which has 48 clubs. Do you really think a 4th tier Austria side (a tier with over 130 teams) would walk the Central League / NRFL et al? Or do they suddenly get twice as good when they get promoted?
Essentially NZ Central League to National League quality. Give or take.
Austrian regional third tier the same as NZ regional second tier? You guys are delusional.
Granted its not the best pro-level, I'm not even convinced everyone would be on a livable full-time wage. However, to discount it as a pub team is unfair, and that's my issue. I don't think its Germany or Italy. I just think its not a pub team. There is an in-between.
Central league :)
At its worst, the 3rd tier (regional Austrian leagues) are Second tier NZ level. At its best, it is Top tier NZ level. How does that make one delusional?
Isn't that somewhere "in-between" Professional League and Sunday pub league?
There are as many as 9 teams from 4th tier get promoted each year to 3rd tier, which has 48 clubs. Do you really think a 4th tier Austria side (a tier with over 130 teams) would walk the Central League / NRFL et al? Or do they suddenly get twice as good when they get promoted?
No-one is talking 4th tier here brother.
This has discussion gone on too far as it is. Ive heard many leagues around the world comparded on this forum to nzfc standard or central league when i belive its simply not the case. I mean would you rather be at saalfelden or playing waiarapa and wellimgton united over a long weekend?
Lovely. Come on here and make disparaging remarks about the mental state of people who might have a slight variance of opinion then stick your fingers in your ears and go "nah nah nah" when someone is prepared to discuss it. Gone down in my estimation Tony.
Lovely. Come on here and make disparaging remarks about the mental state of people who might have a slight variance of opinion then stick your fingers in your ears and go "nah nah nah" when someone is prepared to discuss it. Gone down in my estimation Tony.
Im.still happy to have the conversation. I am sad ive gone down in your estimation and will try to be more open to others opinions
There are some fantastic players in NZ, some play in the central league, some play national league. But NZ has a massive player depth issue, as it stands our national league (and especially central league ) will never stack up to anything remotely professional across most of the world. Talking National league only, i would say thier are only three maybe two teams that have a roster that is fully usable. Otherwise they are just carring players to make up numbers. At central league level its worse. So for every Tade or Joel Stevens running around there is three players playing often on the same pitch who are not even considered park footballers in other countries. That is where our misplaced opinion comes from. Just because Tade got a pro contract doesnt make the rest of the guys he played with over winter one step below. Because often in reality they are not often playing the same sport. Ive heard people say our national league is similar standard to conference north or south. I wont belive that. I belive some of the players have the ability to play at that level, but our lack of depth will never allow our league to be comparable. So in closing i still belive the Austrian THIRD division is on a whole a much higher standard than central league.
Lovely. Come on here and make disparaging remarks about the mental state of people who might have a slight variance of opinion then stick your fingers in your ears and go "nah nah nah" when someone is prepared to discuss it. Gone down in my estimation Tony.
Im.still happy to have the conversation. I am sad ive gone down in your estimation and will try to be more open to others opinions
There are some fantastic players in NZ, some play in the central league, some play national league. But NZ has a massive player depth issue, as it stands our national league (and especially central league ) will never stack up to anything remotely professional across most of the world. Talking National league only, i would say thier are only three maybe two teams that have a roster that is fully usable. Otherwise they are just carring players to make up numbers. At central league level its worse. So for every Tade or Joel Stevens running around there is three players playing often on the same pitch who are not even considered park footballers in other countries. That is where our misplaced opinion comes from. Just because Tade got a pro contract doesnt make the rest of the guys he played with over winter one step below. Because often in reality they are not often playing the same sport. Ive heard people say our national league is similar standard to conference north or south. I wont belive that. I belive some of the players have the ability to play at that level, but our lack of depth will never allow our league to be comparable. So in closing i still belive the Austrian THIRD division is on a whole a much higher standard than central league.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Tony. Reasoned response.
Unfortunately I can't disagree with much of that. Sadly your assessment of football in New Zealand is probably bang on the money.
I believe you overrate Austrian football though. Agreed Austrian 3rd division is 'on the whole' better than NZ regional leagues, but not all teams in it are better than some CL sides, and it all comes down to the numbers game.
Austria has 8m people to our 4m, and granted while they don't have the same competition from other ball codes, they do have significant competition from alpine sports. So double the population gives them maybe 3 times the 'player pool'. Even at 4 times they are spreading it thin.
Their top 2 divisions have 28 teams. We have the Phoenix. Their third tier has 48 teams, our second tier 10 (and many of those players play also in CL, NRFL, Mainland Prem). I think logic says third tier Austria suffers from many of the same issues regarding depth and quality of squad.
So football in Austria has started for season 2020/2021, and somewhat surprisingly Soccerway provide match day squads etc in the Regional 3rd tier. I think previous season was just abandoned.
Valentine made his club debut a few weeks ago in season opener. Subbed at 78 mins, and missed the last 2 games (injured?).
Pinzgau Saalfelden have played 3 games, for 2W & L, and are 4th in their Salzburg region. 'do-re-mi'
Back in NZ at Melville. Played 3 games for the first team and 4 for the reserves in half a season in Austria