Australia coach Graham Arnold has included 18-year-old Nestory Irankunda in his 25-man squad for 2026 World Cup qualifiers in opposition to Bangladesh and Palestine, days after the Bayern Munich-bound winger complained about being ignored for choice.
The Adelaide United ahead, who was not thought of for Olympic qualifiers on the current under-23 Asian Cup, generated headlines in Australia final week when he mentioned he would possibly think about switching allegiance to Burundi or Tanzania.
Irankunda’s warning was criticised by native soccer pundits however didn’t seem to upset Arnold, who gave him his first call-up for the Socceroos squad launched on Wednesday.
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Irankunda, who was born in a Tanzanian refugee camp to Burundian dad and mom earlier than transferring to Australia as an toddler, is ready to affix Bayern Munich in July.
Arnold additionally included Melbourne Victory playmaker Daniel Arzani, a participant who as soon as generated as a lot pleasure in Australia as Irankunda when he turned the nation’s youngest World Cup footballer at 19 through the 2018 event in Russia.
Garang Kuol later usurped Arzani when he performed for Australia on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar aged 18.
Arzani secured a dream transfer to Manchester City in 2018 however suffered a severe knee harm when on mortgage at Celtic and has not appeared for the Socceroos since Russia.
Now 25, Arzani’s choice follows a robust season with Melbourne Victory, which misplaced Saturday’s A-League title-decider to Central Coast Mariners.
With common goalkeeper and captain Mat Ryan rested for the worldwide window, Arzani’s Victory teammate Paul Izzo was included in his first Socceroos squad together with goalkeepers Joe Gauci and Lawrence Thomas.
Uncapped Newcastle Jets ahead Apostolos Stamatelopoulos will even hope to debut in Dhaka in opposition to Bangladesh on June 6 or Palestine in Perth on June 11.
Unbeaten Australia has already reached the third part of Asian qualifying however good ends in the qualifiers will enhance its possibilities of a kinder draw.
“I’ve spoken about how important these two games are when it comes to official FIFA rankings, and while we’ve qualified for round three it’s important that we take all six points,” Arnold mentioned in a media launch.
