Just when you thought Oguchi Onyewu was the only American plying his trade in Serie A, now comes word that an American has purchased newly-promoted Serie A club Bari.
Texas-based and Connecticut-born business man Tim Barton revealed his plans to not only buy Bari, but also to bring in some American players to help boost the prospects of the club that handed Inter Milan an season-opening draw last weekend.
“We want to bring in talented players and take some from the American market, Barton said. "We hope to take Bari to a competitive level in Europe."
Have no idea who Tim Barton is? Here is Barton's bio on the website of his company, JMJ Holdings, and here is an Italian news segment on Barton and his bid to buy Bari:
(Any Italian-speaking SBI readers are welcome to translate the portions in Italian)
The sale, valued at about 25 million euros ($35.6 million), has been agreed to by Bari's long-time owners, the Matarrese family, but still needs to be approvd.
What do you think of this development? Excited to see an American buying into Serie A? Do you see more inroads being made into European soccer for American players? Will Bari become your new favorite Serie A team if Barton succeeds in bringing over some Americans?
Share your thoughts below.
Wow, for $36M he could barely buy an MLS team.
This is the reason there will never be promotion/relegation in the MLS.
Means the Red Bulls would be worth less than the Austin Aztecs.
Posted by: srfinger
bada bing! one of the million reasons why relegation will never happen here… and it shouldnt.
Hello guys…
my name is Ale and i come from Bari (born and live)!:-D
First of all, welcome to american brother!! Second we are so so happy about this sinergy and we hope that really Mr. Barton can open new prospective not only for our soccer team but for all city.
Bari is a beautiful city and more beautiful places nearest are Alberobello, Polignano a mare, Matera, Monopoli…ecc. (see on google or just typing Puglia for see with eyes!;-))
We are not poor area…yes of course, south italy has not industry like north italy but we have sun and sea…so we are the best production and european export to olive oil, tomatoes, grape and we have some international company like Natuzzi in our area.
About team, A.S. Bari is a historycal team, that in the past had a lot of great team player!
Zambrotta, Cassano, Perrotta for example played in A.S. Bari…or in the past David Platt, Zvonimir Boban, Thomas Doll played in our team! But we had no-good administration that was thinking more to have money that invest in team for more good prospective future!
About Stadium, it’s called San Nicola and yes it’s one of the most beautiful stadium of soccer in the world! Project was of Renzo Piano, it is like a UFO…and the most important matcht played are ITALIA-INGHILTERRA wc1990 final for 3° and 4° placement and in 1990 final Stella Rossa – Marsiglia of Champions League.
I hope that all american football fan can be supporter of our team…so FORZA BARI AND FORZA AMERICA!:-D
I would like to see what Americans he looks to bring in. I would think that if he wants to really make the team a name here in the USA he would have to bring in a Freddy Adu or Landon Donovan. It would also be a good move those two players having the chance to play in the Serie A. Looking foward to see what happens with the club.
after the 1 – 1 tie with Inter, anything is possible especially when the $ will play a big role in January. I expect Bari to win his first championship two years from now. F O R Z A B A R I !!!!
I understand he is going to call in Darren Sawatzky, whom you will remember was an AMAZING forward for the New England Revolution. In 1998, he had a trial with Inter and was almost signed for the then huge sum of 15 million Euro, but the Hersey Wildcats outbid Inter and got him instead.
When Sawatzky gets to Bari, he’s gonna rock Serie A.
@Posted by: David | August 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM
Even with the stadium, RBNY is going to be second in value to LA at best (when you factor in their debt they have no way of even being close at all in value and are even behind Chicago in that regard). Especially if Beckham is still on the team and selling shirts at the rate he does. I mean, LA’s shirt sales alone are probably worth more than just about every other team.
That said though, RBNY NEEDS to get out of the Meadowlands. Even if it has no effect on their bottom line I can’t help but think it improves their on field performance.
Back OT: Freddy would be a good pick up. Bari is a small enough team that he would be one of the better guys. If Freddy went to Milan he’d get no time but Bari is small enough where they could benefit from his skills. Monaco and Benfica were too big a set of clubs in their respective leagues for Freddy. Bari could be a good fit.
If I recall the president that brought Adu in was gone by mid-winter. Just the time Adu’s playing time completely dried up. That’s what happens when you’re guy goes and the new guy comes in. See NCAA sports for more examples.
The team logo is hilarious.
Schrewd P.R. move by these guys huh?
If they signed Donovan and say Mastro and promoted the shirts heavily in the US.. I could see all US expectations as being met.
I spent six months in Bari about five years ago. Since the announcement, I have talked to all my friends Barese friends. Whle some have doubts, mainly about a foreigner buying the club, they are all very very happy to see Matarasse family go!
Over the last eight or nine years, Mataresse held the club back, kept them in Serie B and kept all the television money in his own bank, not wanting to reinvest in stronger players.
San Nicola stadium is one of the best in Italy. With the right investments, Barton can turn Bari into a competitive side. Great news!
When he says “from the American market,” I doubt he is just talking about Americans.
Also, Serie A clubs are limited to two non-EU players, so this not going to be a mass migration of MLS talent.
A no brainer for them would be Stefan Frei (has a EU passport).
However, I bet this guy is looking at Landon or Montero in the immediate future.
leftcoastmetro – major props for translating! thanks!
ThaDeuce with another quote of the day:
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ummmmm, 1 word: totally awesome.
Posted by: ThaDeuce | August 27, 2009 at 02:20 PM
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“Mr. Barton is responsible for closing over two-billion dollars in transactions and is known for his ability to seek out opportunities and structure deals in a manner that optimizes returns for the company and its investors”
This is from Barton’s Bio so I would assume the company is worth some where near that amount of Money. May be wrong on that but it is a thought.
Italy does not have a restriction on foreigners, but people have been pushing for it…
I’m not sure about this, but with the EU I don’t think Serie A can have any harder (or easier for that matter) restrictions on foreign players. It’s all centered around having and EU passport.
With the EU there is a freedom of movement for goods and labor, which includes athletics. So I would think that a team in the EU could have a rather high number of non-host country players, as long as they have an EU passport. The restrictions are really geared toward non-Euro players, so for many of our guys getting a Euro passport isn’t impossible. The difficult part is that non-EU guys command higher minimum salaries in most cases.
Rossi!
I don;t know anything about it, but I would assume that Serie A, like all other leagues, limits the number of foreign players. I believe Holden has an EU passport, which should make him one of the more likely candidates.
I’m in a dream world here, but if they got Holden and Donovan (already linked with Serie A) then they could bring in some youngsters and not have to worry as much about the homesickness that got Szetella.
Does he plan to get US players from the MLS? In my opinion, that’s hard & expensive to do.
I wonder if he is looking instead at USL players or perhaps youth players not yet bound to a contract.
There is lots of soccer talent in the US from post high school to post college that is wasted; even the few players that go into the MLS aren’t developed like they would be with a top side in Europe.
We could really use a better link from youth soccer to top professional club soccer.
This will be interesting to watch – good luck to Tim Barton!
the main point I was trying to make is, let’s be realistic. Just because this guy says he wants to bring in American players, it does not mean that he will and it does not mean that they’ll get playing time even if they are brought in.
We were having the same conversation last year when a new owner took over at Monaco and tried to establish an American presence, everyone got excited about Adu coming there on loan and all these other American players that would be brought in… that turned into Adu sitting on the bench all year and no American players on the roster this year…
If you feel like making up names to put on the Bari roster, feel free, but don’t get offended if that gets dismissed as unrealistic…