The importance of homegrown players in Europe after Covid-19
During the last seasons, many European countries have started to wake up and to understand what is the importance of the homegrown players. In Turkey, they reduced the number of foreigners in the domestic league 2 years ago and the results are amazing. Instead of 6 foreigners only 5 and then a lot of local players had much more space to grow and develop their talent in the Turkish league.
In Italy also there are a lot of discussions about promoting their homegrown fellows as in many other leagues of Europe. Now with the Coronavirus came as well the hope for a better future of local players all over the continent. The advantages of this new strategy that will put the accent on homegrown players are huge:
- homegrown players are quite decent regarding the quality-price balance because they grow “organic” inside the basketball community. Many teams in Europe were spending a lot of money on low-level foreigners who provided nothing than chaotic basketball. This has to come to an end. The clubs have to open their eyes better when they buy players and to invest more money to produce and sustain the growth of the local talents.
- homegrown players stay more with the same team because they have an emotional connection with the city and the basketball community. This way, the team is more stable and the chemistry easier to build during years compared with the squads that are buying new players every season.
- if there is a crisis, like a Coronavirus outbreak or effectively temporary lack of money, the homegrown players will understand better the situation and will support the club, while the mercenaries are looking exclusively for the money.
- maintaining the same core of homegrown players will help in building the loyalty of the fans. Loyalty won’t come if the clubs are bringing in new faces every couple of months.
Gratian Cormos
Photo: Basketball Champions League
