Eight-time Socceroo Mitch Langerak has called time on his international football career.
The 32-year-old is stepping away from the international game due to personal reasons, according to Football Australia.
Langerak cited the desire to stay with his family through the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic as the main reason behind the decision to hang up the national team jersey.
“This has been one of the hardest decisions I have had to make in terms of football, but it is the right decision for me and my young family,” he said.
“I have looked at the international calendar up to next year’s World Cup and the likely time away from family, not only due to the camps themselves but periods afterwards in quarantine.”
Beginning his professional career in the A-League with Melbourne Victory, Langerak always seemed destined for more.
In 2010, he made the move to European football with Borussia Dortmund but only made 19 appearances over the course of a five-year spell with the German powerhouse.
Further spells in Europe followed – first with VfB Stuttgart, then with Levante – but he again failed to establish himself at either club.
He currently plays for Nagoya Grampus in the J1 League.
Langerak always had the potential to be the Socceroos’ long-term starter but seemed to be perpetually stuck behind other keepers.
First it was Mark Schwarzer – then following the former Fulham man’s retirement, Mat Ryan was there to take the No.1 shirt.
Langerak’s time in an Australian jersey is perhaps punctuated by a 6-0 friendly defeat at the hands of France, which was also his debut. Then-manager Holger Osieck was sacked following that drubbing.
Langerak was a member of the Australian squad that travelled to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup and won the 2015 Asian Cup with the national team on home soil at Stadium Australia.
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