‘He’s really growing’: Why Arnold believes Irankunda can live up to the hype

Socceroos coach Graham Arnold is confident Nestory Irankunda won’t suffer the same fate as some of Australia’s other great hopes of the past two decades as he considers handing him a start in Thursday night’s World Cup qualifier against Bahrain.

The clash at Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast marks the start of the critical third round of Asian qualifying, which offers the first available direct World Cup slots – and probably the start, too, of Irankunda’s transition from a promising young talent, and one for the future, to an important part of the national team set-up.

Nestory Irankunda at training with the Socceroos on the Gold Coast.Credit: Aleksandar Jason/Football Australia

The 18-year-old sensation made his debut in the last international window, with Arnold handing him a shock start in difficult conditions away to Bangladesh, before bringing him off the bench against Palestine, where he scored his first goal for Australia from the penalty spot.

Those two matches, however, were effectively dead rubbers, whereas this one is critical for the team’s ambitions of sealing qualification for the 2026 tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico, although because of the World Cup’s expansion to 48 teams, there are opportunities beyond the third round to qualify.

And since last pulling on a Socceroos jersey, Irankunda has spent three months training alongside players such as Harry Kane, Thomas Müller, Leroy Sane and Alphonso Davies at Bayern Munich, where he has impressed during pre-season to push for a first-team debut in coming weeks – much earlier than anticipated.

Arnold can sense a difference in him.

“Mentally, you can see there’s a bit more belief,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “He actually feels he belongs, because he’s been training with those players, and he sees that he’s at the same level.

“Physically, obviously, he’s still a kid, he’s got a lot of work to do. Tactically, he does what he’s told, he’s got quite good discipline, which is great, and technically, he’s good. So the mental aspect is the biggest thing. He’s really growing in that belief that he’s building with himself.”

PROJECTED SOCCEROOS STARTING XI vs BAHRAIN

4-2-2-2: Ryan; Deng, Souttar, Circati, Behich; Irvine, O’Neill; Mabil, Goodwin; Duke, Irankunda.

Naturally, excitement is building around Irankunda as well. He was in hot demand on Tuesday, when the Socceroos invited a group of juniors from the Gold Coast Knights to watch training; there was a decent queue for selfies with the Tanzania-born star, who Arnold tested as a striker alongside Mitchell Duke in some drills. For this window at least, Irankunda has been shielded from media duties, despite multiple requests.

A long list of Australian players have failed to live up to similar levels of hype, from Kaz Patafta to Daniel Arzani to Garang Kuol, who was in Irankunda’s shoes just two years ago, after a similar hot streak in the A-League. Kuol then made a high-profile transfer to Premier League side Newcastle United but hasn’t played an official game for the club, and appears unlikely to do so any time soon. As such, his Socceroos prospects have dried up, despite a promising cameo at the 2022 World Cup against Argentina.

“There’s probably been about 20 of them in the last 20 years – wrong moves, all those type of things, and by the time they’re 23, 24, it’s over,” Arnold said.

“It’s the last thing you want for [Irankunda], and the fact that Bayern have kept him on is a very positive sign, rather than loaning him out. I’ve seen players in the past that everyone was talking about, drooling about, and then all of a sudden they can’t deal with the pressure, they can’t deal with headlines, and they can’t deal with all that stuff.

Harry Souttar and Jackson Irvine warm up on Tuesday.Credit: Aleksandar Jason/Football Australia

“But I think Nestor will be fine. I’m excited to coach the kid. I just want what’s best for the kid, and we make sure that we get the right people around him, which is important because, again, he’s only 18.”

Arnold is expected to play a 4-2-2-2 formation against Bahrain, the world’s No.80-ranked side who they beat 2-0 in a warm-up game before the Asian Cup earlier this year, with two strikers and two wingers.

The big questions are about how they will set up defensively.

Captain Maty Ryan was among a group of players who only arrived in camp late on Wednesday night, along with Denmark-based Paul Izzo, which could mean an opportunity for Aston Villa’s Joe Gauci in goal.

Right-back Lewis Miller, another of the latecomers, has been ruled out with a knee problem, and no others in the squad are a specialist in that position.

Arnold also has to find a way to fit in at least two of his four central defenders: Harry Souttar, who is back playing regularly with Sheffield United, Alessandro Circati, who has made an assured start to his Serie A career with Parma, Cameron Burgess, who is yet to see Premier League minutes this season with Ipswich Town, and Kye Rowles, the Heart of Midlothian stopper and Gold Coast local who has occasionally been used as a left-back with the Socceroos – and who Arnold confirmed would start on Thursday night.

Expectations are rising on the Socceroos in accord with the progress of players’ individual careers, with Burgess, Circati and Irankunda part of a handful of those who are now at club’s in Europe’s top-five leagues; not so long ago, there were no Aussies at that level. Arnold has also previously said it would be a failure if they didn’t clinch qualification for the next World Cup in Asia’s third round, but suggested that it wasn’t necessarily a disaster if that happened.

“Of course, we want to qualify directly. That’s our goal internally, to qualify directly and get off to a great start, and have that year after qualification of experiencing friendlies in America or something like that. That’s what the goals are,” he said.

“But there is always that chance it could be a play-off, but we’ve done that three times out of five this century. That’s what Australia is like: the expectations are always high, but you just mentioned three or four top-league players. We don’t have 23 or 24 like Japan, South Korea. But the boys are flying. Every level up is a bonus for us, because we’re getting better players in.”