The teenage sons of some of the Socceroos’ ‘Golden Generation’ – Tim Cahill, Lucas Neil, Scott Chipperfield, Paul Okon to name just a few – are taking their first steps as professional footballers.
Time will tell if they can reach the lofty heights of their illustrious fathers.
Signed from the academy of Dad’s former team Everton, Tim Cahill’s 18-year-old youngest son Shae recently made his debut off the bench for Brisbane Roar and within minutes almost scored.
Though currently without a club, Tim’s older son Kyah Cahill was at La Liga club Rayo Vallecano academy in 2022/23 and captained Samoa’s U-23 national team in their Olympic qualifiers last year.
Lucas Neil’s son Marcus is on the books of Liverpool’s U-16 academy, and Australia’s U-17 coach Brad Maloney is keen to cap him. He is highly rated as a “sharp finisher with both feet” by the Reds’ junior coaches.
Scott Chipperfield’s 18-year-old son Liam, played 5 games for Swiss Champions League stalwarts FC Basel before switching to FC Sion in July last year and has represented Switzerland’s youth teams.
His dad Scott won seven titles with Basel and his son Liam had been with the club since he was six years old.
Paul Okon has four sons and the eldest son Paul Junior was at FC Brugge’s academy before switching to Portuguese giant Benfica’s U-17 side in 2022.
He captained Australia’s U-18 side at the recent Maurice Revello tournament where they surprised many by defeating France and Mexico and finishing third. His younger brother Gianluca is at FC Brugge, as are Paul’s two youngest sons.
Mark Schwartzer’s son Julian was with Fulham’s U-23 side until 2022 and now plays between the sticks for Arena in Indonesia. He has represented the Philippines national team, eligible through his mother.
Josip Skoko’s sons Noa and Luka both play in Croatia. Noa signed for Hadjuk Split’s U-19 team and has represented Croatia at the U-17 level. Luka is in the Croatian second division with NK Solin.
Tony Popovic’s sons Kristian and Gabriel started their careers at Perth Glory, with stints in Croatia and Greece. Kristian currently plays for Macarthur Bulls and younger son Gabriel is with Catania in Serie C.
Mehmet Durakovic’s 18-year-old son Emin recently signed a three-year contract with Melbourne City.
Tony Vidmar’s 19-year-old son Kane was with Adelaide United but last year in June signed a scholarship contract at Western United and has already made several first-team starts.
Former Socceroo and AC Milan keeper Zeljko Kalac’s son Oliver was a former Western Sydney Wanders youth player and now plays in the Croatian third division with NK Jadran.
Current Macarthur Bulls coach Mile Sterjovski’s youngest son Sonny, at just 16 years of age is playing for Blacktown Spartans NPL youth and his older brother Luka is with Macarthur’s academy.
Former Socceroo, Luton town stalwart, and former Perth Glory assistant coach, Chris Coyne’s son Aiden plays as a defender for Watford’s U-21 team.
Alexander Robertson – whose father Mark and Grandfather Alex were both Socceroos – is currently getting rave reviews and man of the match awards at Portsmouth while on loan from Manchester City.
Eligible to represent Scotland, Peru, and England, he has played friendlies for Australia and seems committed though he has not yet played a “competitive” fixture.
Though we may lose some of the Golden Generation’s sons to other nations, with that kind of pedigree, genes, and talent, some of these young guns should break through making the future even brighter for the Australian national team.
Aiden
Roar Rookie
Yep. I know kids who played with Nani’s kid when he was in Oz. Parents and other kids said average. The kid left here and next thing he is at a big European academy (can’t recall which). Way of the world.
beaversrevenge
Roar Rookie
interesting factual article. Not sure if any of these will play for Real Madrid but nice to see it runs in the family!
mrl
Roar Rookie
Thankfully my 13 year old son is already a much better keeper than his dad ever was!
Kitwally
Roar Rookie
Agreed BT. Popovic’s sons followed him to the teams he was coaching at Perth, Greece and Croatia. Cahill’s son at Everton and Schwarzer’s at Fulham also because their fathers were former players at those clubs.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
They have gotten too much in the way of favourable treatment. What happened to Slaters son for example dissapeared. Popovic sons they havent performed. Shae Cahill he needs to improve his fitness , Brisbane need to find energetic young players and I wasn't impressed by Cahill most recent performance. Brownlie less famous father but he is delivering the goods.
Grem
Roar Rookie
A lot of potential talent there with some rave reviews for some of them. They don’t need to be as good as their dads to make an impact in football and yes it would be lovely to get a few to commit to us. Arnold and Mulensteen have done a good job recently with others so they may be the ones to get them in. Hopefully Arnold wasn’t too generous to Robertson’s club by not choosing him – hopefully this wasn’t a mistake as he is really blossoming. Same with Circati – these two are looking like long term Socceroos.