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As Western Sydney Wanderers captain Nikolai Topor-Stanley lifted the Asian Champions League trophy in Riyadh, football fans would have been excused for trailing off to focus on a man who has never even seen them play.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of Johnny Warren’s passing, and in a fitting tribute to the great man Western Sydney provided further proof that football in Australia is hurtling towards unprecedented heights.
The victory is Western Sydney’s to savour, but it’s also a win for Australian football as a whole, and yet another step towards fulfilling Warren’s iconic prophesy.
“When I’m up in the big football field in the sky, I just want people to remember, I told you so,” Warren said.
That well-known line referred to his belief that football would rise to the top of Australian sports.
The Socceroos not just qualifying but competing for the World Cup was his main dream, but the ACL win would have probably brought Warren to tears as well.
Even in death, Warren’s mind was firmly set on his lifelong passion for football, which he devoted his life towards. He promoted and championed the sport without fear of creating enemies or stirring controversy.
We will never see a man of Warren’s ilk again in Australian football, and the destiny he envisaged for the game was partially completed in the early hours of Sunday morning.
A homegrown Australian club, with a homegrown Australian coach and homegrown Australian footballers, triumphed against all odds against the might of Al Hilal and Saudi billions.
The way Western Sydney rode their luck – three clear penalty shouts for the opposition denied – was almost too good to be true. But it wasn’t about luck in the end, it was about destiny. Deserved destiny. Just ask Ante Covic.
Al Hilal are well within their rights to feel aggrieved, Japanese referee Yuichi Nishimura had a shocking game. But the Wanderers, led by the inspirational Covic and Topor-Stanley, played with heart and earned their fortune throughout the tournament.
Tony Popovic played the competition to perfection, employing tactics that frustrated his opponents and capitalised on moments of individual brilliance. Never before has such defence and discipline been seen in Asia’s premier competition. And many of the Asian stalwarts they faced underestimated the Wanderers, and paid the price for their arrogance.
“Dreams do come true,” Popovic said post-match.
“They’ve made history tonight. It’s a marvelous achievement for the club and Australian football.”
For while it’s Western Sydney’s to celebrate, the whole country can revel in this unlikely triumph. And it could not have been possible without the groundwork of Johnny Warren. His vision, his passion and his persistence played a huge role in Australia ditching Oceania for the Asian Football Confederation.
Throughout his entire life, he strived to bring credibility to football never seen in Australia. He was a fighter, who didn’t shirk from the spotlight and caused enough controversy for two lifetimes, let alone one cut tragically short.
He was a trailblazer, both as a player and as a media personality. Throughout his career he wasn’t just one of the Socceroos’ most gifted players and captain of the team. He was football’s biggest PR machine, constantly promoting the game to whoever would listen.
Warren was an educator, a coach, a player, an innovator and most importantly, a fan. He was one of us, but he had the power to change the course of the sport’s destiny. He created the destiny that we are finally seeing come to fruition.
Warren’s early life was plagued with extreme prejudice. As he often recalled, playing football in the 1950s reduced you to “second class” status. He rejected Australia’s mono-cultural, insular tendencies and embraced foreign cultures, taking up the migrants’ game.
The uniting of the Sydney’s west would have delighted Warren.
He was known as ‘Wog Warren’, both derogatively and affectionately, because he chose football over the established codes, paying for it with ridicule. Warren was a Sheila, a wog and a poofter, like most football fans who grew up supporting the game before the turn of the century.
But he rose above that major obstacle and encouraged football to do the same. Second best was not good enough for Warren, he wanted the game to reach the same status that it holds in Europe and South America.
It was a pipe dream. Fantasy. But he made it our destiny. His dream was for Australia to win the World Cup.
When Warren cried on national television in the aftermath of that devastating 2-2 draw with Iran on November 29, 1997, his dedication to the cause was laid bare for even a layman to see. Qualification for the World Cup in France slipped through our fingers, and it was too much for Warren to handle.
He tried, but failed, to keep it together, and emotion took over. Australia cried with Warren that night. Those tears are enough to make any grown man shed a couple, no matter how many years pass between then and now.
Qualification for the 2006 tournament was dedicated in his honour, and rightly so. “I told you so” was emblazoned in the stands when John Aloisi converted that all important penalty in front of 80,000 fans on November 16, 2005 at Stadium Australia.
That qualification was another step closer to Warren’s dream, as were the next two, and winning the right to host the 2015 Asian Cup.
If Warren had been around to commentate on our A-League clubs competing in the Asian Champions League, he would have set the same lofty target of lifting the trophy. It would have all been part of his masterplan to gain football a permanent and dominant hold over Australia.
Warren pushed for the A-League, he pushed for the FFA, and he pushed for acceptance into Asia. His vision created this platform. Thank you, Western Sydney Wanderers, from the bottom to the top, for partially realising that vision.
Australia’s tribute to Warren continues this weekend, with the Johnny Warren Round. Thursday, November 6, signals 10 years since his death from cancer.
His off-field mission, much like his playing career, was cut short when he was still in his prime. What the game would have achieved with Warren still critiquing and analysing is unknown, but what is certain is that Australian football would have been richer for it.
For Warren, and Australian football, it appears heartbreak and joy in the month of November is a reoccurring theme. Iran 1997, Uruguay 2005. Warren made his full Socceroos debut in November 1965 and in November 2002 he found out he had lung cancer, passing away almost exactly two years later.
November has followed him around, and so it’s fitting that the Western Sydney Wanderers’ ACL victory comes on the first of the month. Football meant the world to Warren and he would have been so proud of Popa and the boys.
“It’s the game of the world, the game of the people, and we are going to win the battle,” he once said.
That battle isn’t over, but the ACL win takes us one step closer.
Johnny Warren left Australian football in a stronger position than it had ever been in, and the Johnny Warren Foundation continues to champion his message. Now it’s our job to turn his dream into reality.
Warren’s legacy will run through every football game, for the rest of our lives. His contribution to the game was immeasurable. And so when you think of the Wanderers’ ACL triumph, spare a thought for Johnny and shed a tear for him this weekend, as we take yet another step towards our destiny.
Follow Janek on Twitter @JanekSpeight
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