Worst Euro pro league that pays a livable salary?

[Gubbhornet]

FC Barcelona has a team. Wouldn't it be cool to play for the same club as Messi?

 

[Albatros]

FC Barcelona has a team.

Amateur though, so no salary to speak of.

 

[Gubbhornet]

Amateur though, so no salary to speak of.

True. But honestly, if I wasn't good enough to play in a leauge where I made so much money that I could save for the future I would rather play in a nice city/country where I maybe also needed a part time extra gig on the side instead of playing in a leauge where you break even but is rather boring. I mean, playing in a 3rd leauge in Sweden/Finland in a small town with 5000 inhabitants. What will you do when not playing hockey?

If you manage to find a club in a bigger city and maybe a nice climate (by your preference) that maybe are willing for your accommodation, and then work part time to get pocket money I think you will have a better experience.

Fyi, I live in Sweden and it's great when you have a real income and know people. But people in all Scandinavian/Nordic countries are quite reserved initially until you learn to know them. Also, these countries are way more north then most parts of Canada so it gets quite dark in the winter.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Amateur though, so no salary to speak of.

Imports still get paid there though. Lithuanian guy played for the bottom team of the Spanish league and he said he was still making enough money to live on it, so to say. He and the other import from Finland shared the apartment provided by the club. So even at that level, you can live off playing hockey if you really want to.

Ruslan Cernych at eliteprospects.com

True. But honestly, if I wasn't good enough to play in a leauge where I made so much money that I could save for the future I would rather play in a nice city/country where I maybe also needed a part time extra gig on the side instead of playing in a leauge where you break even but is rather boring. I mean, playing in a 3rd leauge in Sweden/Finland in a small town with 5000 inhabitants. What will you do when not playing hockey?

If you manage to find a club in a bigger city and maybe a nice climate (by your preference) that maybe are willing for your accommodation, and then work part time to get pocket money I think you will have a better experience.

That is true enough but most people just don't pursue a hockey career at all if they don't feel it will provide them for the future. And those who play in the 3rd league of Swedish hockey mostly treat it as a jump board into a better league that will actually pay. If you choose to play in Spain it does nothing to your CV even if you score 3 PPG.

 

[Gubbhornet]

Imports still get paid there though. Lithuanian guy played for the bottom team of the Spanish league and he said he was still making enough money to live on it, so to say. He and the other import from Finland shared the apartment provided by the club. So even at that level, you can live off playing hockey if you really want to.

Ruslan Cernych at eliteprospects.com


That is true enough but most people just don't pursue a hockey career at all if they don't feel it will provide them for the future. And those who play in the 3rd league of Swedish hockey mostly treat it as a jump board into a better league that will actually pay. If you choose to play in Spain it does nothing to your CV even if you score 3 PPG.

True, but people must know that there is a huge gap between 3rd leauge and 2nd leauge (Hockeyallsvenskan) in Sweden. Even if you make 2 ppg in 3rd, it's not guaranteed that you will get a contract in 2nd. So, people must know that they will need to be patient if they want to climb a latter like that. I would probably need to be something like swedish 3rd -> Norway 1st -> swedish 2nd if you are really dominant, and maybe during your 2nd contract in swedish 2nd you will be able to put some money in a savings account. That is of course if you are not playing on an decent level in North America (AHL, top echl, NCAA or similar). Players that usually transition well to Sweden are speedy players with good hockey iq. If they are a bit undersized they have a better chance to use these abilities on the big ice than on North American rinks.

It's fairly easy to see how good you need to be to make it in most euro leauges because you can look at the stats for NA players on eliteprospects.com. I would say that if Norway 1st seems too hard to reach in that comparison, just go to the nicest city possible and see it as a chance to learn a language and have a fun experience.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

FC Barcelona has a team. Wouldn't it be cool to play for the same club as Messi?

Amateur though, so no salary to speak of.

I feel like it's been mentioned here before, but isn't Roller Hockey (Rink Hockey) more popular in Spain and Portugal? They seem to dominate that circuit.