Stephen Appiah has been out of football for almost a year. Channel4.com's blogger Steve Wilson wonders if his fate is a sign of things to come for more top-class footballers.
It is an oft-repeated belief that footballers reach their prime in their late 20s. Stephen Appiah is 28.
A Scudetto winner [revoked] with Juventus, captain of his nation-Ghana-at the 2006 World Cup, bags of Champions League experience… How exactly has he failed to find a new club following his release by Fenerbahçe last summer?
The short answer is injury. The powerful midfielder was courted by plenty of clubs in pre-season, most notably Tottenham Hotspur-with whom he spent some time training.
However, concerns over his fitness prevented a full-time deal being offered to him. Nevertheless, we expected him to be picked up as a free agent after the transfer deadline passed in August, but it never happened.
Then came the January transfer window. Surely in the mid-season player merry-go-round - and with a few more months of work on his ailments-he would find a new home?
But, again, things came and went – this time a test with Russian champions Rubin Kazan – without leading to a permanent deal. Consequently, 2008-09 has become Appiah's lost season.
How does this happen? Fit, and lucky, players can get around 20 years as a professional, an unlucky player probably 15 at best.
To willingly sit out one of those precious campaigns seems madness. Surely there were lesser clubs, perhaps even in Serie B, England's Championship or the SPL, that would have welcomed a semi-fit Stephen Appiah? Even if only for six months from the start of January.
He is, controversially, still being selected for the Black Stars squad, so he can’t be that immobile and out of shape.
He may not have passed Spurs and Rubin Kazan's strict medicals, but it seems impossible to believe that there was no club willing to lower their expectations just a little in order to benefit from a player of Appiah's experience.
That leads us to the unpalatable conclusion that the man himself wasn't willing to play below a certain level – or wage. Are players really so rich these days that they won’t get out of bed to play unless the price is right?
With credit being crunched and clubs tightening their belts it is likely that more of the elite earners will find themselves squeezed out, and left with the decision of whether to accept lesser terms or stay at home counting their cash.
We have already seen talented players, like Winston Bogarde at Chelsea, happy to sit on the bench each week in exchange for their wages.
Will they now start taking it a step further and sign on for 'No Club FC'?
Of course, this is just one side of the coin, and the other paints the generous Appiah -he has his own charity, the StepApp Foundation – in a far better light.
It could be that knowing his physical frailties the player chose not to burden himself on a club he may not have been able to reward with his full ability.
Rather than bleed money out of a struggling outfit he may have decided to take time off and live on the wages he has already earned.
Whatever the scenario, we would all much prefer to see the powerful Ghanaian midfielder back in the game.
He served Udinese, Parma, Brescia and Juventus well on the peninsula, and could again offer his services to an Italian club in the future.
However, I suspect the curious tale of his year off from the game is one that will become familiar in the future as more players, financially comfortable, opt to stay at home rather than play at a level they deem beneath them.
