Socceroo Jackson Irvine’s lessons from St. Pauli on road to Qatar
Socceroo Jackson Irvine has expanded his social consciousness at German club St. Pauli, and it‘s informing his attitude about playing in Qatar for the World Cup, writes ADAM PEACOCK.
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At the centre of Jackson Irvine’s universe is kicking a little sphere around a grassy rectangle, yet there is much more to him.
Got a guitar? Irvine can pick it up and belt out a Led Zeppelin classic. Got a camera? Irvine is happy to pose in whatever clothes are lying around. Got an opinion about human rights? Irvine is happy to listen, then throw his opinion right back.
And the team in Hamburg, Germany he plays for is as much a cause as it is a club.
St. Pauli. Pro-inclusion. Anti-fascist, anti-racist. Left-wing ideals are as important as talented players on either flank.
While results are important, who you are, and what you stand for counts for more.
“It’s a community, it’s bigger than football,” Irvine tells CODE Sports.
Irvine loves St. Pauli. They love him back. He wears the armband, rainbow in colour, and recently signed a long-term contract.
Yet political leanings and an expanding social consciousness didn’t get him there.
To work out what did, look no further than what happened in Doha last June.
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There are two magnificent images which explain Jackson Irvine’s relationship with football perfectly, and both are from the Socceroos most dramatic moments, 17 years apart.
In 2005, just after John Aloisi slammed his penalty home to send Australia to the World Cup after three decades of disaster, a 12-year-old Irvine was snapped by his parents in the crowd, shirt off, going ballistic.
In June this year, a 29-year-old Irvine was again shirtless, euphoric, yet this time wildly switching between joy and tears. Incoherent and inconsolable.
The Socceroos had snuck past Peru on penalties, and for 120 minutes, Irvine, a central midfielder who has formed his game around a willingness to work, crashed through the pain barrier.
“I’ve never felt almost broken after a game,” Irvine says.
“My biggest attribute is energy, but … I. Was. Finished.”
The stats back it up. The standard distance for a central midfielder to cover is 12 to 13km for 90 minutes. Irvine ran nearly 18 kilometres for the two-hour test against Peru.
As for high intensity sprints, a measure of how hard a player is willing to work, Irvine phenomenally did 62 of the suckers.
“Towards the end I could barely stand, and just stopped functioning,” Irvine says.
“My body was basically saying, ‘Nup, ya done mate.’”
The big right mit of Redmayne saved the Socceroos. Irvine stood in the centre circle for a moment, disbelieving. He had to check with an official, ‘Is that it?’
It was, and off Irvine went, stripping his shirt off, wildly swinging it above his head, like the 12 year-old kid from the Uruguay game in 2005.
“There was this high elation, then I was inconsolably upset, in a good way,” Irvine says of the Peru success.
“The demand we put on each other for that week, and the 120 minutes was through the ceiling. Thankfully it was enough in the end.”
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After Peru, normal life at St. Pauli FC returned for Irvine.
St. Pauli Football Club is based in Hamburg’s red-light district, its home ground, the Millerntor-Stadion situated a long goal kick from the Reeperbahn.
Sixty years ago a few lads from Liverpool came to play at local clubs, and for two sleep-deprived, drug-fuelled years, they fine tuned their musical ability and went home as The Beatles.
By the 80s the area was known for its counterculture. The local football club, St. Pauli, has latched on to what surrounds it.
In 2009, the club released a set of 15 guiding principles. Around 480 words make up the principles, and ‘win’ or ‘results’ can’t be found among them.
A key principle is ‘tolerance and respect in our mutual interactions’.
Irvine felt it straight away and recalls a story from a few months after he signed in 2021.
A van carrying the worldly possessions of Irvine and his girlfriend was driven from his former home in Hull, England. It was just hours after Irvine had played for St. Pauli in front of 30,000, but here he was, unloading furniture out the front of his unit block.
“This group of fans came past and recognised me,” Irvine says.
“Said to them lads, if you wanna have a chat, grab a box! So there’s six or seven guys helping me move my stuff in, chest of drawers on their backs, helping the new guy move in! Just the kind of thing you might not see anywhere else.”
Sure, there is pressure to perform, but as long as there is effort, Irvine says, there is respect back. St. Pauli has spent most of its life in Germany’s second division, but what it stands for has seen popularity explode worldwide, with more than 400 supporter clubs around the globe.
Results are one thing, but effort on the pitch counts for plenty and adhering to the club’s values counts for more.
In 2019, St. Pauli sacked Cenk Sahin after the Turkish midfielder posted support for his country’s invasion of territory in a part of northern Syria held by Kurds.
“The prime factors in reaching the decisions were his repeated disregard for the club’s values and the need to protect the player,” read a St. Pauli statement.
Irvine knew the score going in.
“It’s made very clear to you when you join St. Pauli what you’re a part of,” Irvine says.
“The fans and community hold you to that. If you don’t, they’ll let you know.”
There is a sign splashed across the stand which houses the core of St. Pauli’s active supporter group on matchday.
“Kein Mensch ist Illegal,” it says.
The sign translates to: “No man is illegal”.
There are no such signs where the world is headed next month.
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Irvine is not stupid. He knows going to Qatar for a World Cup is not without consideration beyond football. He’s read the stories about the state’s attitude towards homosexuality and the reported deaths of workers who have built stadiums, a figure Qatari authorities say is wildly inaccurate.
Irvine, along with the Australian squad, have attended briefings with FIFA, Qatari organisers and the players’ unions to decipher the truth.
“You have to make sure you’re informed and up to date,” Irvine says.
“Trying to gauge from both sides where that middle ground is, to help create sustainable change in terms of a positive impact for these (workers).”
The players are caught in the middle. Qatar won the World Cup in a period of time FIFA was corrupt to its core, and Irvine would like to see some form of player representation in future decision-making processes.
“This has shone a light for players and organisations to have more of a say in the future as well,” he says.
“It’s obviously complicated. There’s progression with workers’ rights there. Is it to the level we want and expect? Probably not quite there yet.
“Boycott wasn’t in anyone’s mind as a realistic option because I don’t think it would help.”
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As adulthood pushes Irvine’s social consciousness to new areas, the kid who is a football fan still exists deep down.
On a recent flight back to Australia, Irvine was minding his own business when a familiar face appeared over the seat in front.
“It was Jason Culina, who I’ve never met before, on his way back from Europe,” Irvine says.
Culina played Irvine’s position in 2005 in the Uruguay game. Nine months later, Irvine and his parents went to Germany to watch the Socceroos reach the knockout stages.
“I couldn’t believe it on the plane, Jason Culina came up to me! Turned into a 13-year-old again.”
Now it is his turn to impress those watching. As Jackson Irvine’s mind continues to expand, he is again prepared to push his spirit to the limit.
“We go there with that same intensity and same feeling,” Irvine says.
“We’re ambitious, the Socceroos have only made it out of the group once and we want to be that team that does it again. That’s why we are there.”
Originally published as Socceroo Jackson Irvine’s lessons from St. Pauli on road to Qatar
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