Australia’s most exciting football talent right now is creating plenty of hype but the teenager’s club coach insists he will keep the youngster’s feet firmly on the ground — even if they end up above his head during his now-iconic backflip goal celebration.
Nestory Irankunda made waves when he was sold by Adelaide United to Bayern Munich in 2023, and he has done so again with a pair of spectacular free kicks for English Championship side Watford.
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After a testing two years with the Bundesliga champions, where he was confined to the reserve and youth teams, as well as a loan spell with Swiss side Grasshopper, Irankunda made a £3 million (A$6.2m) switch to the English second division.
LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 09: Nestory Irankunda of Watford takes a shot during the Sky Bet Championship match between Charlton Athletic and Watford at The Valley on August 09, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by James Fearn/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
With next year’s World Cup on the horizon, and having been left out of the national squad in the last three international windows, playing time was an absolute must for the exciting winger.
Watford has delivered that, and he has repaid the favour by quickly announcing himself as a fan favourite at Vicarage Road.
Irankunda has scored two goals, both of which came via long-range free kicks, and has provided an assist so far this Championship season.
The first goal was a superb curler over the wall and into the top left corner from roughly 20 metres to open the scoring in a 1-1 draw at Swansea City.
“I think it was the captain said to him, ‘oh, look, are you okay to take this?’. And he said, ‘oh, you obviously haven’t seen my highlights’,” Craig Foster told the ABC Sport Daily podcast.
“He’s a very exciting talent.”
The second stunner was even better.
Irankunda STUNS with glorious free kick | 00:38
It came from a few metres further out, curled into the top right corner of the net, and the home fans went bonkers as it salvaged a point for the Hornets against Southampton, who were relegated from the Premier League last season.
Irankunda’s double backflip celebration also showed that he is an entertainer.
“Those were perfect, beautiful goals,” Watford manager Paulo Pezzolano told the Watford Observer.
“I can’t remember anyone scoring two in a row in my career.”
It is little wonder that he earned a Socceroos recall from manager Tony Popovic for the two friendlies against New Zealand in Canberra on Friday and Auckland on Tuesday.
As Foster’s anecdote suggests, Irankunda is not short on confidence.
It takes a certain kind of character to walk into a new team and immediately take over free kick duties.
Especially when they are still a teenager.“I’ve done it before and I’m very happy to get the goal,” Irankunda told BBC Radio after his latest free kick heroics.
“It’s about the confidence to be able to step up for the team and be able to do it in the moment.
“[It’s] something I’ve worked on my whole career. I don’t practise them as much as I used to but I’ve learned the technique.”
WATFORD, ENGLAND – AUGUST 16: Nestory Irankunda of Watford and Nicolas Madsen of Queens Park Rangers battle for possession during the Sky Bet Championship match between Watford and Queens Park Rangers at Vicarage Road on August 16, 2025 in Watford, England. (Photo by Paul Harding/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
It seems Irankunda’s time on the training pitch is being used to enhance the other aspects of his game with Pezzolano certainly not letting the Australian rest on his laurels.
The Uruguayan manager has identified several key areas for improvement, including fitness and the mental side of the game.
“Nestory hasn’t accomplished anything yet,” Pezzolano told the Watford Observer.
“We know that he has so much more to give and the most important thing is that he keeps on working.
“We know about his quality and while we didn’t expect those free-kicks in such a short amount of time, we know he is very good at them.
“I am going to stay on top of Nestory. He has to keep on growing, keep on developing. We cannot settle for that.”
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He continued: “From a fitness point of view, if he now sprints 20 times per game, he has to sprint 30.
“If he has the opportunity to give three assists, he has to give six. If he can score two goals, he has to score four.
“He needs to improve tactically, be better at understanding when and how he needs to press.
“He needs to make the right trajectory for attacking the opponent when they have possession.
“Basically, we want to help him realise the great player he can be and the player we can help him become.
“It’s been two or three years since everybody expected him to be a great player, we want to help him achieve that.”
Those words are music to the ears of Australian football fans.
So too were Irankunda’s final comments in his BBC Radio interview.
“My main priority is to perform here and then build the confidence to hopefully go to the [2026] World Cup,” the teenager said.
With the likes of 22-year-old Jordan Bos, who has begun the Dutch season well for Feyenoord, also starting to make his mark in Europe, it is exciting times for the Socceroos.
And with qualification already secured, Popovic has the time to invest in the likes of Irankunda at international level ahead of next year’s World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.