Ahead of Australia's against Türkiye, there was a queue of doubters, from pundits to fans and opposing players – both current and former. When the team sheet arrived 90 minutes before kick-off , many more were scratching their heads and wondering what exactly was happening.
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic had seemingly rolled not just a couple of dice, but a large chunk of the entire box. The XI he named was, at 24.6 years of age, the youngest Socceroos side in history.
Captain Mathew Ryan and his deputy, Jackson Irvine, were both dropped. In their stead came the nation’s standout performer at last year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup™, Paul Okon-Engstler and two-cap, 22-year-old keeper Patrick Beach.
Arguably the most exciting name in that youthful XI though was the youngest of the lot, Nestory Irankunda. Having only departed his teens in February, the Tanzania-born, Adelaide-raised starlet came into the tournament with no end of hype.
Glimpses at youth level, hints during a fleeting domestic career, expectations enhanced by a Bayern Munich transfer and moments at Watford had stitched together a quilt of expectation.
Not totally comfortable in the limelight, Irankunda entered this World Cup under its glare. After a dazzling tournament debut, in which he starred as Australia beat Türkiye 2-0, Irankunda has gone from being one of the most talked about youngsters in his homeland for many years, to potentially one of the breakout stars of the finals.
Expected to be Australia’s X-factor, he pinched whatever factors lay after that in the alphabet as well. As the half hour approached at BC Place Vancouver, he raced on to a defence-splitting pass from Okon-Engstler and displayed all the traits that have seen him showered with expectation. Pace, control, balance and then the finish past Ugurcan Cakir.
As Australia exploded, Irankunda raced off to the corner flag for a bit of shadow boxing. Three months ago, at the home-hosted FIFA Series 2026™, the starlet had a celebration that would have been hard to top, when he whipped out a white glove and set off on a Michael Jackson homage.
This time, as he explained exclusively to FIFA post-match, the tribute was much closer to home.
"That was for Timmy Cahill, he’s my biggest inspiration in Australian football," Irankunda said. "I’ve always looked up to him and wanted to meet him.
"I had to get the celebration out there for the country to remind them that and show the young kids that whoever you look up to, you can be like them one day.
"That's my goal, to be like Timmy Cahill one day."
There’s an argument that dawn is well and truly breaking on that day, after an evening in Vancouver on which he became his nation’s youngest ever World Cup scorer.
“It feels amazing, scoring on my debut at the World Cup," Irankunda reflected. "It was just the second time that we’ve won our opening game and we’re so proud and we hope everybody back home is very proud as well.
“In terms of the [individual records], honestly I don’t think about any of that stuff. I just try to play my best when it comes to playing with the national team and that’s what I did today.
“I gave it my all. Obviously, my legs gave up in the end, but that's what I love to do, give my all for the country that gave me everything.”
The result was Australia’s biggest World Cup winning margin since 2006, when a Cahill-inspired performance saw the Socceroos down Japan 2-0 in Kaiserslautern. It’s also moved them level with USA at the Group D summit, ahead of the nations’ Seattle showdown on 19 June.
That provides Irankunda and Co another chance to silence the doubters and it’s an opportunity they intend to seize.
“We knew what we were going to do and we know what we can do. That wasn't our best performance, but we played to our limits, played as much as we could," the starlet added.
“We defended with our lives, we attacked with our lives. In the end, the result's there, we scored some goals and we're super excited.
“For the people that doubted us, there's still plenty more to come.”
Sources: FIFA Official
