James Holland used to idolise Manchester United ... now he aims to dump them out of Europe
Six years since his last Socceroos cap, James Holland can look forward to a date with Manchester United, the real prospect of an Austrian league title, and just maybe the chance of a national team recall.
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At 30, James Holland reckons some of his best football could still be in front of him.
Six years since his last cap for the Socceroos, Holland has a date with Manchester United on the immediate horizon — aiming to dump the club he idolised as a child out of the Europa League.
Beyond that there is the real prospect of an Austrian league title, and just maybe the chance of a recall to the national team he first got called into aged just 18.
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Once anointed by Holger Osieck as one of the coming generation of stars for the Socceroos, Holland instead has drifted off the radar after, he admits, questionable choices in his club career.
But now he is back to his best at the heart of an Austrian fairytale. His club, LASK Linz, was on the brink of bankruptcy six years ago but after being taken over by a group of locals, it has climbed from the third division to the first two years ago and is now six points clear at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga.
“It’s been a really cool journey to be part of,” Holland said.
“It still has a family feel about the club and I’m grateful to have been part of this period – it means so much to people that they’re almost crying after every game.
“Watching the culture they’ve created, the modesty and the hard work, is quite a powerful thing to experience.
“Hopefully United don’t even know that much about us, but we can go in there without huge expectations on us,” he said ahead of hosting the Red Devils next Friday morning.
As a boy, it was the treble won by United in 1999 that turned him into a Red.
“I had the badge on my wall, the scarf,” he said.
“I devoured DVDs of players like Dwight Yorke and Eric Cantona to learn from them.”
Five years ago though, Holland began to lose direction, frustrated at club level in Europe and returning to Adelaide United for a few months before making an equally brief foray to China.
“I’d had opportunities with the national team but I didn’t really take them,” he said.
“Others did, especially at the World Cup (in 2014), and I made decisions at club level that didn’t work out.
“I fell flat on my face really, but the goal was always to get back to Europe, and that’s worked out well. Of course I’d love to get another chance with the Socceroos as well, but whether that comes isn’t in my hands.”
Holland speaks with a lot of perspective gained along the way, not all of it to do with football.
In 2013 News Corp Australia told the story of how Holland bought his mother a house as a thank you for the hundreds of hours she had spent ferrying him to football training as a single mother.
“In 2016 when I spent a few months at Adelaide, to be honest I hadn’t wanted to return to the A-League, but in retrospect it gave me the chance to spend a lot of time with my mum,” he said.
“Soon after I moved back to Europe, she passed away unexpectedly. Looking back, I wouldn’t have had that time with her if things had gone according to plan.
“It’s been a journey, the whole thing.”