‘Do that for the nation’: Socceroos to unleash Bayern Munich-bound young gun

The end of Nestory Irankunda’s final season in the A-League couldn’t have come soon enough for Carl Veart – not because he didn’t enjoy working with him, but because the Adelaide United coach was sick of answering questions about him, week after week, press conference after press conference. Such is the burden of having a generational talent in your squad, a player with gifts so rare that they tend to swallow up any other points of interest.

Now it’s Graham Arnold’s problem – and hopefully it remains a problem for whoever succeeds him as Socceroos coach.

And for Vincent Kompany, the new Bayern Munich boss, too.

Irankunda’s senior international career will begin on Thursday night with a likely appearance off the bench in Australia’s World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh in Dhaka, Arnold confirmed.

And for all the supposed concerns about his maturity and temperament that surrounded his controversial non-selection for the Olyroos, he has apparently settled into Camp Socceroo with ease. He’s even taken to hanging out with the team’s senior leaders.

Clips posted by the national team on social media capture the 18-year-old sensation casually doing his thing at training, drilling home at least one shot from a patently absurd angle with enough power to genuinely test the structural integrity of the net.

Nestory Irankunda’s senior international career will begin against Bangladesh in Dhaka on Thursday night.Credit: Subway Socceroos/Aleksandar Jason

“Do that. Do that for me. Do that for the nation,” Arnold said when asked what his instructions for Irankunda will be. “Go out there and play to your strengths and your skills. I’m not going to try and control him and get him to do things that is not his specialty. What he’s very, very good at is doing what Nestor does, and we will fit that into our style of play, but also in our system.

“He just has a couple of little things around his defensive side of things, but at the same time, that’s where we need the senior boys on the field, some of them, to help coach and lead those younger boys to make them feel comfortable on the pitch.”

By the time Irankunda enters the fray, the Socceroos will probably be multiple goals ahead, giving him a perfect platform to showcase his wares against the poor unsuspecting defenders from the world’s No.184th-ranked side, who lost 7-0 the last time they faced Australia.

Of the 16 questions Arnold fielded in his Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday, four were about Irankunda, and that ratio will probably increase in tandem with his career.

Socceroos boss Graham Arnold.Credit: Getty

It remains to be seen whether he will fully live up to the immense hype around him – he will, after this international window, move to Germany and begin training with Bayern Munich’s first team when pre-season begins – but if he does, Arnold will have a game-breaking weapon capable of producing goals out of absolutely nowhere, and the Socceroos will have a player with enough star power to boost wider interest in the men’s national team back to historic heights.

“I have to say I’m excited and happy that everyone is talking about the kid,” Arnold said. “At the end of the day, he is a great talent. But it’s not always just about talent. It’s also about where your career is going – obviously he’s going to Bayern Munich, but it’s also about how much hard work he puts in, and how much belief he has in himself to get to that next level.

“The kid has got the qualities but at the same time, it’s maturing at that age, and getting through this next four or five years, and it’s all about playing football and developing. He’s been very good in camp. The Socceroos, we have a fantastic culture here, and he’s fit in very, very well with no distractions.”

As for Irankunda’s cheeky threat last month that he would consider playing for Burundi or Tanzania if Arnold didn’t call him up for the Socceroos, it’s been addressed.

“I think Nestor just wanted a headline. You guys did it for him,” Arnold said. “We’ve had a chat and a laugh about it, but the kid wants to be here, wants to play for the Socceroos. He said that his dream is to play for the Socceroos and I believe he’s ready and prepared for it.”

Having named an experimental squad for this window, with passage to the next round of 2026 World Cup qualifying already assured, Arnold plans to give almost all of the 25 players in camp a taste of action, either in Bangladesh or on Tuesday night against Palestine in Perth.

He said he would start different centre-back pairings in each game, with World Cup heroes Kye Rowles and Harry Souttar being challenged by Cameron Burgess and Alessandro Circati, who recently won promotion to England and Italy’s top flights with Ipswich Town and Parma respectively.

Souttar will be handed another opportunity to showcase himself to club suitors, Arnold said, but it may be his last given the depth in his position. He is facing an uncertain future, having been frozen out of first-team action virtually since his arrival at Leicester City for an Australian record transfer fee - but the coach who shunned him, Enzo Maresca, has just moved to Chelsea, leaving Souttar unsure if he should stay and try to impress his replacement in the hope of regular Premier League minutes, or bite the bullet and go.

With captain Maty Ryan rested, Joe Gauci is likely to don the gloves in both matches.

Arnold is hopeful the Socceroos (No.24) can overtake South Korea (No.23) on FIFA’s world rankings this window, to guarantee a spot in pot one and thus an easier draw for the next round of World Cup qualifiers, with the two nations separated by just 0.06 ranking points.

For that to happen, though, Australia will not only need to beat Bangladesh and Palestine but hope that the Koreans drop points against Singapore (away) or China (home). That would seem highly unlikely, since the Taeguk Warriors prevailed 5-0 and 3-0 respectively in their previous meetings with those teams.

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