Nestory Irankunda has sensationally rejected the chance to play at the Paris Olympics this June after a late bid from the Olyroos to include the teenage wonderkid, according to reports in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Celtic winger Marco Tilio, currently on loan at Melbourne City, was chosen instead of the Adelaide United star in the initial squad for the Under-23 Asian Cup, which is also a vital Olympic qualifier, but subsequently picked up an injury to his quad, prompting Football Australia to sound out Irankunda to come in.
The 18-year-old, however, has reportedly knocked back the offer and will instead complete the season with Adelaide before transferring to German giants Bayern Munich.
The decision begs questions of the higher-ups at Football Australia (FA), who did not include Irankunda in the initial squad but tapped him on the shoulder when Tilio, a player who has missed most of the season in Scotland and subsequently in Australia with multiple fitness issues, got injured again.
As the tournament falls outside of a traditional international window, clubs do not have to release players.
Louis D’Arrigo has been withdrawn by his club, Lechia Gdansk, who are in a race for promotion to the Polish top flight, even though they had previously written to FA suggesting that the player could take part.
“We had been in discussions with Lechia for some time about Louis’ availability for this tournament, unfortunately they’ve decided that he’s required to remain in Poland,” coach Tony Vidmar said.
“We understand and respect the position of the club, and I’ve made my frustration at the timing of this tournament, and its impact on player availability known for several months.
“That being said, it’s certainly disappointing to have things change like this at the last minute, when all our preparation had been done on the proviso Louis would be available.”
Irankunda meanwhile has been tearing up the A-League with four goals and two assists in his last four games, fast becoming the hottest property in the league.
Quietly they will be happy that he has turned the chance to play at the Olympics down as he will have a farewell match at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday night before United go on a three-game road trip to round out the season.
Had he gone away with the Olyroos, he would likely have missed all four games with the tournament due to start next Monday.
Now, it will be unlikely that he is selected for the final squad, assuming Australia qualify for the Olympics. They have to at least reach the semifinals to stand a chance with the top three advancing directly and the fourth place playing off with Guinea, from the African Confederation.
Irankunda had been left out of the squad with the reasoning from coach Tony Vidmar that it would be a better fit to manage his workload after a full season in the A-League and an impending move to Munich.
“With Nestor, we have to be really mindful,” Vidmar said at the time.
“He’s just such an emotional player, and what’s happened to him this season, I think he’s on a rollercoaster 24/7. That’s just the way he is. That’s the way it’s gone, and we have to look at the bigger picture.”
“We want Nestor to be a 10-year-plus Socceroo. He’s going to be the future of the national teams, that’s for sure.
“We just have to be mindful of what we do with him in the national team space. At the moment, we don’t want to damage him.
“The welfare of the player is No.1. He’s just turned 18, and it’s a big ask for him to come in, (with) all these expectations from people outside.”
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
well i did say they would struggle to get out the group (and was proved right, like usual)
Kewell
Roar Rookie
Given the results to date they won't qualify, in fact they have been to defensive and showed to much respect.
Kewell
Roar Rookie
You cat win if you can't score, Indonesia were the better team and played with enthusiasm, and were positive in attack.
Ferno
Roar Rookie
Thing is that is not qualifier properly. It is the AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qatar 2024. which is going to award the 3 best positioned team a place in the Olympics.
Ferno
Roar Rookie
Among things A-League urge to do in order to grow its reputation is to stop picking players from clubs in the decisive moments of the championship. Two years ago MCity played the grand final without its main players cause they were serving the national team. Now many clubs are going to play their chances to make finals, and CCM their chances of premiership and AFC cup, without their players. It's like a negative award for those that develop their players well . A-league has one of the longest off season in world. There is plenty of time. Why not stop ALeague for national team to play? Why not leave olympics for amateurs and juniors as it is supposed to be. Who cares about olympic football anyway?
NickA
Roar Rookie
Some interesting names, I really hope Jovanovic commits to Aus, I think he's excellent
NickA
Roar Rookie
Thanks SS. No need to discuss Nestor, a bit over everyone wanting to talk about this kid as well AP is a good case in point and agree a conversation probably should have happened with Arnie if it didn’t. Davidson I also reckon is age related (not that I think it matters when you have good up and coming left backs – pick Davidson to support them, esp given Behich is not available).
Leon
Roar Rookie
Hi BT The Olympics website (Olympics.com) does not distinguish between qualifiers and competition matches of the upcoming games with respect to eligibility of up to three men footballers born before 1 January 2001. Either that is misleading and I stand corrected, or it is actually right.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
At least it's good to see they have a solutions based mindset....rather than the perpetual whining from our red cousins. Wristbands are a bit dull though.....I vote for Public Enemy style clocks on chains :)
Garry
Roar Rookie
its ostensibly for policing [they often leave the bay to go for a smoke and supposedly this is so the correct people are in the bay] but the reddit view is its failed before and will cause extra unneccesary hassles [eg people going into the bay will be held up on entry getting wristbands] – they also say Sydney Fc is against this as well.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
From all accounts the kid isn't very smart, isn't very mature....but then few athletes are. He's about to move to the other side of the world, alone, into a new language and new culture...into a very , very, conservative and conspicuously white community. These are sizeable challenges for mature professionals let alone kid footballers. He deserves the space to focus fully on those challenges.
Marcel
Roar Rookie
???. Is that for policing purposes....or is it some new gender identity thing? What are the preferred pronouns for a Cove member....Oi / Doh!
Marcel
Roar Rookie
Ridiculous isn't it ....what's next GT7? That and far too many flags of convenience. The last Mexican softball squad had 17 Americans in it, only 2 Mexicans. Theres still enough real sport to keep me interested for the moment..but my interest is becoming much more selective.
Brainstrust
Roar Rookie
?????????? You cant use overage players in qualifying.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Looks quite good for the Socceroos!
Grem
Roar Rookie
Great insights SS. As I asked before - are the national coaches considering Nestory’s well being? If they are trying to protect him then that is to be commended, I would think.
Grem
Roar Rookie
You have - thanks. Do you think the national coaches have been / are considering his well being?
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
players will be lost and players will be gained, that is unforunately an everyday occurance when you hold dual nationallity status or in certain cases can quality for 3 or 4 different countries theres plenty of sliding door moments, where things could've changed had people acted quicker - lets looks in the past few years at the sliding doors between australia and serbia an an example with players either born or qualifying through a parent for both countries: strahinja erakovic - who many believed (including myself) would have a great career in europe after becoming a regular starter at 18 for red star belgrade and was sold for 13 million AUD recently. while his career hasnt gone like i expected, hes only recently turned 23 and hes still better than any CB/RB playing for the socceroos he has never been contacted by anyone from the Australia FA (they were not even away of him) william millwood - ex red star now partizan player who turned his back on australia after a lack of interest and is now fully ingrained in the culture and football in serbia hes developing nicely through the different underage national sides - australia does not have many technical dribblers like him luka jovanovic adelaide united- was contacted by the serbian fa, but then they essentially ghosted him for months - now the player is up in the air whether he wants to represent australia or serbia (preference has always been serbia though)
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
contrary to popular belief, this site has had many complaints from my postings - including clubs (remember last year when macarthur wanted a whole portion of one of my articles removed for revealing there financials) as well as players. i will always try to provide as much information as possible, but i also have a certain duty to protect players/clubs (especially adelaide) as much as i can i dont particularily want to to discuss Nestor (i've said more than enough on him that has been not been public knowledge over the course of the past 3 years and i've countered every misleading report by any journalist that has an agenda) i've also discussed in great detail the run ins i have had with arnie in relation to player data + alot of the trepedation from current and past adelaide united figures (including myself) for selecting al hassan when he was already carrying an injury; only to get badly injured and has never been the same player since or lived up to his potential. arnie is not well liked in adelaide, not sure that will ever change if he keeps selecting injured players *cough* goodwin *cough* i have not once said i could do a better job than arnie, all ive ever wanted is for him to actually coach the side like an international coach - he breaks the simple fundamentals when it comes to international coaching over little things by not selecting the best performing players. as for dual nationallity players, this is what i know: circati - has been blocked by his club, he is comitted to australia (italy has shown little interest, because they have a lot of really good CB's coming through. robertson - made it clear he wants to play for australia but is struggling with injuries volpato - theres a misconception that he turned his back on australia, hes matured mentally alot later than many of his peers of the same age group. he's concentrating on club football and i wouldnt be too concerned that he is being selected for italys underage side at the moment as for communication i know for a fact that no one from the socceroos has directly/indirectly made any attempt to communicate with AP over why he has not been selected in the past 2 squads (a goalscorer like that gets called up by any other country in the world) jason davidson has also not had any communication in terms of why he has not been called up to recent squads (that may be age related, but theres not another better performing australian lb anywhere in the world
NickA
Roar Rookie
Nah disagree. Who’s the ‘has been Scotsman’? Burgess who grew up in Perth? Souttar who started playing for the Socceroos at 19? Only one I agree with is Gethin Jones. I think it’s about managing a delicate situation where we have high potential players breaking into their club squads (Circati, Robertson) – pulling them away to likely not play as much as they would at club level. We’ve seen time and time again the issue of taking players away from clubs for internationals – Kewell, Cahill, Schwarzer etc were all given a hard time. It’s strange that people think they know exactly what Arnold does, when he clearly has a good relationship with all of these players and is likely in constant communication and interviews with both players and him indicate exactly that. Also if Robertson/Circati are both good enough to play for England/Italy it would make their lives so much easier, so you also cannot blame them for having second thoughts from that aspect either. I would say if SS had any examples of that, I’d hazard I guess that this would be the reason; not personal complains about Arnie but happy to be proven wrong (somehow) Arnold is not a perfect manager but too many people find blame with him for everything to do with the NT