Treble or nothing: Socceroos whiz kid’s FOMO over Manchester City celebrations

Alex Robertson is grateful to be back in camp with the Socceroos. Under any other circumstances, at any other time, that would be his singular emotion.

But on this occasion, he can be excused for feeling a little conflicted.

Alex Robertson put country over club by skipping Manchester City’s UEFA Champions League final to get in some extra training with the Socceroos.Credit: Getty

On Sunday morning (AEST), instead of seeing his Manchester City teammates seal a rare European treble in person, and indulging in the celebrations, he watched their 1-0 win over Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League final from a hotel bed in Beijing.

Most of it, at least. “It was on at 3am,” he said. “I think I woke up at like 3.30am, something like that, so I caught the second half - not meaning to wake up. I was just a bit jet-lagged.”

Robertson, 20, is part of City’s Elite Development Squad, and is yet to make his senior debut for the club, but did sit on the bench a few times this season. He is highly rated by Pep Guardiola and is being mentored by fellow midfielder Kevin de Bruyne.

He could have gone to Istanbul, watched on from the stands and participated in the open-top bus parade back in Manchester as tens of thousands of fans honoured their heroes. It would have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but one that would have come at the cost of international minutes for Australia, and a chance to go head-to-head with Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Thursday night’s friendly.

Erling Haaland celebrates with the UEFA Champions League trophy.Credit: Getty

“I had the choice to go to the final, but it just would have meant that I’d probably be here a couple of days later. I thought it would have been good to come out, train for a bit longer with the boys, get that experience in and then try and get some game time in the Argentina game,” Robertson said.

“[The treble] was something special for the club. I was a bit ... not sad, but it would have been good to be there. But I thought the more important thing for my career at the moment would have been to be here, so I made that decision.”

Robertson, who became a third-generation Socceroo when he made his debut against Ecuador in March, has another big decision to make soon. By his own reckoning, he has maxed out what he can learn from training day-in, day-out with one of the best football teams of the modern era - but he now needs to play consistent first-team minutes to continue his development. Since they will probably be too hard to come by in Manchester, a loan or permanent move away next season appears certain.

He has gone to Graham Arnold and his assistant Rene Meulensteen for advice, and further discussions will be had with Guardiola and the City Football Group’s top brass to settle his next move. “I’ve just got to take that on board, try and speak to as many people as I can who are really experienced in the game, get their point of view on things and see what they think I should be doing,” he said. “I’ll sit down, see all my options and assess them and see which one’s the best one.”

Alex Robertson, Erling Haaland and John Stones on the bench for Manchester City.Credit: Getty

Robertson will come off the bench on Thursday night at the Beijing Workers’ Stadium, where all 68,000 tickets were sold out within one minute of going on sale. While the Socceroos have been mobbed outside of their hotel each time they’ve ventured out of it for training, the star attraction in the city is, of course, Messi. But for Robertson, who grew up in Maroubra before moving to England to further his football career, one of the many benefits of spending every day with Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish is that rubbing shoulders with even a legend of Messi’s calibre isn’t that big of a deal.

“I think Messi is the best player in the world to ever play. But at the end of the day, he’s just another player,” he said. “When you step on that field, there’s nothing to really be starstruck by. You have to do your best. It’s just like playing against anyone else. You’ve just got to play your own game, test yourself against these world champions.”

Australia did a pretty good job of containing the 35-year-old, who is set to sign for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami, at last year’s World Cup - but they let their guard slip for one moment, and that’s all Messi needed to punish them with the opening goal in their 2-1 win in the round of 16. It was such a difficult battle that Argentina’s coach Lionel Scaloni personally requested this rematch with the Socceroos, and recently told Arnold that it was their toughest encounter of the entire tournament. They are expected to field a full-strength team.

“I felt that we did very, very well until about the 43rd minute on [Messi]. And we’ll do the same again,” Arnold said.

“But it’s not just about him - they’ve got some incredible [other] players. [Angel] Di Maria starts, [Alexis] Mac Allister starts as well. The focus needs to be on our own performance. If there’s one thing that we could do better than the last [game] was in possession, keeping possession better and making sure that we’re making them do some running and some chasing.”

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