"The right environment at the right time" - Newly promoted Irvine on the lessons for Australia's next generation.
Newly promoted to the Bundesliga with St Pauli, Jackson Irvine hopes the waves of Socceroos earning their way into major European leagues can lay down a marker for rising Australian players.
Newly promoted to the Bundesliga with St Pauli, Jackson Irvine hopes the waves of Australians earning their way into major European leagues next season serve as a marker for future players, especially the success of Connor Metcalfe and Alessandro Circati.
Irvine, 31, skippered Der Kiezkicker back to the German top flight for the first time since 2011, the Hamburg-based club losing just five games across their 34 fixtures and ending the season with rapturous celebrations after the 2. Bundesliga season concluded with them one point clear of Holstein Kiel.
The 58-time Socceroo, who shapes as a likely captain for the side in coming World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh and Palestine in the absence of the rested Mat Ryan, was joined in earning promotion by Metcalfe, who is also part of Graham Arnold’s squad for this coming window.
And the pair aren’t the only ones in camp celebrating recent promotions.
Alongside fellow Aussie Massimo Luongo, Cameron Burgess earned promotion to the Premier League with Ipswich in 2023-24, while Circati will play Serie A calcio after Parma’s promotion. Harry Souttar’s Leicester are also headed to the Premier League, albeit, the towering centre-back is likely to leave the Foxes to secure more game time.
For Irvine, the 2024/25 campaign will be his first taste of one of the ‘Big Five’ European leagues, with his career before he arrived in Hamburg having seen him ply his trade in Scotland and the lower leagues of England.
It’s been a long slog for him to get to this point, the Melburnian drawing comparisons with the journey that Burgess and the likes of Aaron Mooy and Mile Jedinak before them went through to reach the bright lights of Europe’s biggest leagues as an example of the perseverance that can be required to reach these points.
Metcalfe, however, will play in the German top flight as a 24-year-old having joined St Pauli as a 22-year-old after leaving Melbourne City. Circati, for his part, won’t turn 21 until October, having joined Parma in the Italian second tier after leaving Perth Glory as a teenager without a senior A-League Men appearance.
It’s not quite the Premier League just yet, but Socceroo striker Kusini Yengi experienced the joys of promotion as Portsmouth moved back into the Championship this season and, in recent years, Denis Genreau played in Ligue 1 after helping Toulouse secure promotion.
“The talent's always been there,” said Irvine. “Sometimes football is funny. It can sometimes be about timing and a little bit of luck. I always look back at Mile Jedinak and Aaron Mooy. I look at the guys who in recent years have made it and played at the very top level. And they were also 28, 29 you know, when they reached that moment in their career.
“That's a compliment to the perseverance of the players that we have and how difficult it can be and the things you have to go through to finally achieve the opportunity to play at that level.
“But now we're seeing with Alessandro and with Connor -- Cameron [Burgess] probably falls into the same category as me as someone who had to work for a number of years playing at lower levels to try and earn that opportunity -- for these younger guys to have made that step now I think can be a huge marker for the younger guys going forward.
“To show that you know if you make the right move, you have the right mentality and, of course, you need that little bit of luck as well. But when you go into the right environment at the right time. It shows that they have got the ability to do it. And I think it's going to be huge.
“I think it will hopefully change the attitude of how players go into those kinds of moves. And where the opportunities they take [are], to try and push themselves to achieve that level.”
It’s a potentially pertinent lesson for the likes of call-ups Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Josh Nisbet, who have both been the subject of much speculation surrounding their futures after standout A-League Men campaigns.
For his part, Arnold has made no secret of his desire, if the circumstances are right, to allow his players to impress in a Socceroos shirt and improve their situation domestically – it’s one of the major reasons Souttar has continued to play despite a dearth of minutes in the Midlands.
This means that figures such as Ryan Strain, Cameron Devlin, Stamatelopoulos, and Nisbet could join Souttar in getting a shop window in the coming fixtures, the first of which will take place in Dhaka on Thursday evening. But, even if they don’t, the coach says he’s ready to provide advice.
“What's important is the next step,” said Arnold. “A lot of times for players, the step is too big, too high and then they end up not playing.
“What's important is one step at a time, they go up the ladder; one step and they get the right club that suits them or they go to the right country. The style of football suits them as well.
“So a lot of times, the players will reach out to me and ask me about my advice, if there is advice I can give for them on the style of the country of football that they're going to play. I'm always here to help with that type of thing because it's important that the kids and the players take that next step in the right way.
“Daniel Arzani has spoken out about that. I have seen things where he spoke out about when he went to Celtic and maybe it wasn't the best decision for him in terms of the style of Scottish football, whereas it is for others.
“It's important that those types of things are right for the player.”