Australia prides itself on its international sporting teams. Frankly, most punch well above their weight on a per capita basis.
On Friday morning, the national team I care about the most took on China PR in its opening match of third round World Cup qualifying. The result was more than pleasing and many Australians punched the air three times somewhere between 4 and 6am, as the Socceroos towelled up what was a very disappointing opposition.
Those willing to emotionally invest in the nation’s male football team cause themselves much grief and anxiety, but every now and then enjoy a moment of ecstasy.
We are all hoping for a little more of that joy as the qualification campaign continues and should people reflect on who the Socceroos are as a team as they watch, they may well discover the kernels of an incredibly powerful metaphor.
It is a metaphor laced with inspiration, inclusivity and equality, as well as being something potentially powerful in a world still cursed by racism, bigotry, division and the lack of knowledge that fuels all three.
The 11 men who took to the pitch against the Chinese articulated a wonderful story. It is a story of culture, migration and diversity and one that should feature more prominently when Australia seeks understanding around unsavoury incidents that continue to call the average Australian’s degree of empathy and acceptance into question.
Outstanding on the night and seemingly destined to be one of Australia’s best Socceroos of the modern era, Kenyan born Awer Mabil continues to inspire. Mabil’s parents are from South Sudan and lived the frightful existence as refugees before finding a home in Adelaide.
Awer Mabil (Photo by Yifan Ding/Getty Images)
Still just 25, the Denmark-based attacker appears to be a wonderful man, professional and lightning rod.
Playing on his right shoulder was Tom Rogic, one of Celtic’s best and a player born in the nation’s capital. Rogic is one of thousands of Australians who call Serbia an ancestral home, another nation whose political past has seen many arrive in Australia, desperate for something better.
Just a few paces further across the pitch was Martin Boyle, one of the freshest Socceroo faces. Born in Scotland yet with strong bloodlines embedded in Australia, Boyle has four goals in just seven matches for the national team. His accent is as thick as a Glasgow fog, yet looms as one of the most vital cogs should the squad navigate their way to the finals in Qatar next year.
Tucked in behind those three on Friday morning was the man who looks as polished as any Socceroo of modern times. Ajdin Hrustic was born to a Bosnian father and Romanian mother, in Dandenong of all places; potentially the first time those three locations have ever been included in the same sentence.
Alongside him was Jackson Irvine, a player born in Australia yet whose first taste of international football was with Scotland’s under-19s in 2011. Thankfully, the 28-year-old saw the light and has become a reliable Socceroo after 37 caps for the national team.
Sitting at left back was Aziz Behich, a Turkey-based Socceroo and the son of Cypriot migrants who came to Australia for the better life so many sought. Behich is simply outstanding, consistently professional and a wonderful role model for young footballers seeking an understanding of what it takes to build a respected playing career in the game.
Holding the fort in the centre of defence were Harry Souttar and Trent Sainsbury.
The six-foot-six Souttar continues to provide an aerial threat not seen for the Socceroos since Tim Cahill departed. He was born in Scotland and we can thank the fact that the 22-year-old’s mother is Australian, for presenting this immensely promising young player to the Socceroo squad.
Sainsbury holds a UK passport, despite being born in Western Australia and is one of the thousands of Aussie footballers before him with connections to the ‘old dart’.
The three remaining members of the squad may well have had their tents pitched in Australia early in their lives, yet even their stories say a great deal about the unique diversity found in Socceroo ranks.
Goalkeeper Mat Ryan was not born in a salubrious Sydney suburb where his gifts where certain to be nurtured by every possible advantage. Instead, he hails from Plumpton, a suburb in the local government area of Blacktown and one that continues to struggle with poverty, domestic violence and disadvantage.
Right back Rhyan Grant was born in Canowindra, a town in the central west of New South Wales that still houses a tiny population of just 2258 and Adam Taggart lives out the diversity in the squad in a slightly different way.
Western Australian born, the striker’s football journey has taken him to London, Scotland, South Korea and now Japan, with considerable success along the way.
The Socceroos are the most beautiful of teams. The most unique of teams.
A perfect metaphor for a nation based on migration and diversity.
Sadly, without the presence of First Nation’s Peoples it is incomplete, for now. However, indigenous Socceroos have inspired us before and will do so again.
When that time comes, the picture and the most universally appealing national men’s team will be even more complete.
Phill Browne
Guest
Please tell me you think Rugby League is a popular football crowd Dunning hahahaha
Stuart Thomas
Expert
I'll try harder.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Your first mistake is labelling any fans as being a crowd, aligned to one sport and that only. As if to suggest they detest anything else. Secondly, the assertion that there is zero difference in diversity between the major codes is utterly ridiculous and we all understood what you meant when you said 'popular football codes' in the last sentence.
Dunning Kruger
Roar Rookie
God this is such a typical article from the soccer crowd. So insular you fail to notice that all sports have multi ethnic and multi cultural teams in Australia. There is precisely zero difference between soccer and the popular football codes in Australia when it comes to diversity, except that Aboriginal athletes prefer the popular football codes.
Maximus Insight
Guest
I'm not sure picking out someone's spelling and grammatical errors are best described as "points". In debate the term "points" is usually employed to describe substantive arguments. As an aside the focus on unpicking grammatical errors and typos tends to be compensation for not being able to mount an actual argument. In terms of my last paragraph, I strongly disagree. Firstly, I made no generalisation - the phrase "widely held" explicitly qualifies it as not a general claim. Happy to debate whether or not you think the belief that Australian soccer has been relentlessly victimised does not sit at the centre of the identity of a decent proportion of its adherents. I've certainly read soccer personalities that have pointed out that victimhood is actually debilitating so I obviously wouldn't generalise. But anyway, call me "spiteful and offensive" but I'll stand by that observation. Point is it's ridiculous to claim some unique level of inclusiveness when there is such a blatant thread of reflexive hostility towards large portions of the population. That is antithetic to inclusiveness.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
He's talking about current Players though, not ones of the past
Redondo
Roar Rookie
Look Max, we all acknowledge that almost all of the world's top 700 or so professional Australian Rules footballers are Australians. And that says it all really.
Redondo
Roar Rookie
A few points Max: - Australians use 'defence' not 'defense' - 'cheap-shot' is not hyphenated - 'cheep' is a sound a bird makes and it's the wrong word in the context of a 'cheep shot' - 'repellent' is arguably the correct spelling of 'repellant' - at least, it's by far the most common spelling - 'victim hood' is a single word - 'victimhood' - "it's" is the contraction of 'it is' - the possessive form is 'its' - 'hypocricy' is spelled/spelt 'hypocrisy' And finally, your last paragraph is just plain rubbish. Stuart made an unmalicious and truthful observation about the rules in another sport. You, on the other hand, have made a spiteful and offensive generalisation about a community of which you are not a member.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
Andy, I am surprised and a little disappointed you let Maximus Insight get away with such a simple and obvious error. I am certain with your back ground knowledge [far greater than mine] of the many indigenous players who have graced the the playing surfaces around the country, but in particular here in Adelaide. Fred Agius Travis Dodd [The first indigenous player to score for Australia] These are just two that come immediately to mind.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
All of a sudden the conversation took a sharp right turn and now we have the old debate about 'The CODE WARS'. I must admit reading the banter between some posters has definitely livened up a rather dull old day.
Rodger King
Roar Rookie
What a great article Stuart, thank you. For anyone who is preparing a trivia quiz night for their local junior football club I don't think you could find a better question than this. Q: - What does Bosnia, Romania and Dandenong have in common: A: - Hjdin Hrustic: Now that will be a great tie breaker question. :)
Micko
Roar Rookie
Exactly Matt! Soccer got big by European migrants post WW2 moving into suburban enclaves mainly of the five mainland state capitals. It's still not really a relevant sport in regional/outback Australia.
At work
Roar Rookie
Yeah who knows, from what I've seen (TV) and read it's basically only rugby league or aussie rules that are played by the majority of indigenous in the more regional communities.
Nick Symonds
Guest
NEWS: 'Unbelievable' - Australian prodigy Cristian Volpato earns Jose Mourinho call-up after turning heads at Roma - Born and raised in Australia before moving to Roma in early 2020, Volpato has already been called up to train with Italy's Under 19's team. While Australia have also made some initial contact, Basha believes their time to pounce is quickly running out. "I want him to play for the Socceroos but if this kid, and I have a feeling, debuts in Serie A this year, Graham Arnold needs to go knocking ASAP," he said. "Cristian is open to it, he hasn't closed the door on it just yet." - https://www.sportingnews.com/au/football/news/australian-prodigy-cristian-volpato-earns-jose-mourinho-call-up-after-turning-heads-at-roma/2a6w5gk6zrbz1h5crtd06f786
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Yet I'm a member of clubs in both and professionally involved in one of the codes. I think the chip lies elsewhere mate.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Spending millions to get into NSW and QLD private schools and get rugby talent is another hair brained scheme from the AFL. Rugby and rugby league are close together, they have a reason to go after their each others players. The whole point of scouting networks in a proper run sport is to identify prospects because you can get to them first but when you have this American draft model where coming last is the best position on the ladder and you work from the worst upwards you better off just tanking than wasting money scouting. You can just wait to their final college year in NFL to start scouting so you can work out who to pick in the draft. Why is one AFL club going to lure a player into the sport then they get drafted in by another club.
chris
Guest
Matt the NRL can't even get SOO eligibility correct, so the rules they follow are pretty "flexible". Whatever suits the agenda they'll allow it.
Mark
Guest
As a City supporter, we also had David Williams and James Brown who are both indigineous play with us. David was our highest goal scorer until Maclaren took that over this year, and is still playing I believe outside of Australia. James Brown is still playing in the NPL for Nunawading I understand, recently playing against our Youth team before lockdown. Broadly speaking on the whole a lot of indigineous youth play Australian Rules in Victoria, and I assume SA and WA. I think both the above two came from Queensland but I may be mistaken
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
Football was Adam Goodes first sport he is still very good at it. The reason Aboriginal players stand out skill wise in AFL is the 18 vs 18 nature of it and rabble rousing style coaching instead of concentration of training of skills. If you think 11 vs 11 is bad for skill development well 18 vs 18 is a lot worse. Then you have crazy coaches who like the sound of their own voices and go on and on thinking they are gods gift instead of allowing people to practice their skills . These style of coaches then get people to line up and attempt something one at a time just so they can then critique every individual after so you might get one action every 20 minutes and a lot of talk from the coach. Not that its just AFL coaches I have seen others with this issue. Aborginals would be playing small games, a lot more touches on the ball, practicing their skills and thats why they stand out so much in the AFL and have so many numbers at the professional level. Football a lot more emphasis on skills for everyone else its going to be harder to stand out with such a small share of the population. Your forgetting at one point you had David Williams, James Brown, Minniecon, Sarota, Jade North, all playing in the A-league at about the same time.
Micko
Roar Rookie
Specifically European caucasians...but what are caucasians? A very wide group of related humans, and the line is blurred between the Europeans ones and others, as the line of what constitutes "Europe" (as a continent) is blurred.