Junior coach Tony Basha celebrates Socceroo Mitch Duke’s World Cup success
Long unfancied and unappreciated, Mitch Duke is in many ways the Socceroos’ most unlikely of heroes. But to those who know him best, watching his World Cup success is the ultimate vindication.
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In the 23rd minute of Australia’s second Group D match against Tunisia, the attention of the footballing world was focused squarely on Mitch Duke.
Cameras, commentators and eyeballs alike were locked onto the Australian striker as he was mobbed by his teammates, all of them running full burst to celebrate his wonderful header that gave Australia a 1-0 lead.
But away from the cameras, a couple of rows back from the field at the Al Janoub Stadium, there was another scrum. And in the centre of it was Duke’s childhood coach and mentor, Tony Basha.
“People were hugging and kissing me,” says Basha. “They’re saying, ‘That’s your boy!’”
To those unaware of the backstory, the jubilation might have seemed a little extreme. However in the world of professional sport, there are very few stories quite like Duke’s – and very few bonds quite like Duke’s and Basha’s.
Indeed, there is a fair argument to make that neither Duke nor Basha – and by extension, perhaps not even Australia – would have been in Qatar if not or a chance meeting two decades earlier.
It was in the early 2000s, and Basha, who had just set up the Australasian Soccer Academy in Sydney, went along to watch a junior game. In the Parramatta Melita team was an unfancied young striker by the name of Mitch Duke.
“I was watching the game with a friend of mine and this blond kid came on,” says Basha.
“I liked him. He did one thing and I said to my mate, ‘That guy’s a good player’. But then the coach hooked him after eight minutes. I said, ‘Why’d they take him off?’ Anyway, his dad Bill happened to be in front of me and said, ‘That’s my son – and it happens all the time’.”
Basha saw the potential in Duke – even if others didn’t – and took the young striker under his wing.
“He had a lot of knock-backs, that’s for sure,” says Basha. “I don’t know why they didn’t want him. They didn’t see what I saw.
“He was just a hardworking guy who’d put his body on the line and run through a wall for you. He was athletic, fit, fast, strong – and he could score!”
Such was Basha’s belief in Duke that he went to some extreme lengths to get him a trial with Tony Walmsley at the Central Coast Mariners’ youth academy.
“I rang Walmsley and he said, ‘Oh no, Tony. I know Dukie, he’s not good enough’. I had to beg him, to be honest. I begged him: ‘Please, I know he’s good enough, trust me’.”
In the end, the Mariners did trust Basha. The club ended up signing Duke, who a couple of years later made his A-League debut under another believer – then Mariners coach Graham Arnold.
And now, as the Socceroos look to take on Lionel Messi and Argentina in the round of 16, Australia will be looking to Duke – the unwanted kid from Liverpool who no one rated – for goals as the country dares to dream.
For Duke, now leading the line for Australia, it’s clear that the support he received during those difficult years hasn’t been forgotten.
“He’s very loyal, he always comes back to the academy when he’s home. He’s a beautiful guy,” says Basha.
“He’s not just a good player, he’s a good guy off the park as well. He’s the complete package.”
While in Qatar watching Australia’s first two group games, Basha was in regular contact with his former student to get an insight into his mindset.
“I was talking to him on the phone almost every day,” says Basha. “He’s loving it, he’s over the moon.”
In fact, in a sign of the closeness between the pair, when Duke made his now famous ‘J’ hand gesture to his son, Jaxson, after scoring the goal against Tunisia, Basha was at first convinced it was a message for him.
“Do you know what: I thought it was for me!” laughs Basha. “In the past I’ve told him to do a ‘T’ for me. But after the game he messaged me and said: ‘That wasn’t for you, man. That was a J.’”
Sitting in the Al Janoub Stadium in Qatar, as both he and Duke were mobbed by fans and players alike, Basha was overcome with emotion.
That blond-haired kid who he first laid eyes on 20 years ago at a field in Parramatta had finally fulfilled the potential that his mentor always believed he had.
“I had a tear in my eye. It was a reward for all of those years of hard work,” he says.
“I had him in the academy from when he was a 13-year-old and took him all the way through to when he got his first professional contract with the Central Coast… I believed in him from day dot.
“I was just so proud. But not just of Dukie, I was proud to be Australian. This is our country. Everyone bags Australia, but that’s only going to make us better, make us stronger and give our players more respect on the big stage.”