Kicking goals

Only a few months after threatening to walk away, Clive Palmer seems to be back in love with his Gold Coast United soccer team.

The colourful Queensland entrepreneur has failed with audacious bids to sign some of the world’s most famous players in recent weeks. Palmer tells BRW he tried to sign Spanish player Raul – who has enjoyed a stellar career with Real Madrid – and former French international Robert Pires. Palmer also tried to sign former Chelsea player and German captain Michael Ballack, who chose instead to return to German club Bayer Leverkusen. “It would have been good for the league and shaken things up a bit if we could have signed one of them,” Palmer says.

Gold Coast also held discussions to sign Australia’s most high-profile soccer player – Harry Kewell – though he opted to re-sign with Turkish club Galatasaray for one more season.

If Palmer had landed Kewell, he would have lined up alongside his Socceroos teammate Jason Culina, who is the highest-paid player in the A-League with an annual contract that pays him about $1.1 million. There has been speculation Culina could leave the club, although Palmer says he will stay.

Palmer is also trying to re-sign star striker Shane Smeltz, who left to join Chinese club Shandong but reneged on the deal. Smeltz, who played in the recent world cup for New Zealand, is attempting to move back to Gold Coast.

Dealing with his soccer team clearly makes a pleasant change for Palmer, who was the face of the mining industry’s bitter fight against Kevin Rudd’s resource super profits tax in the past few months. He has kept a relatively low profile during the federal election campaign, though he has attacked Greens leader Bob Brown over his policy to extract more revenue from mining companies.

BRW

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