{"id":577910,"date":"2026-04-01T05:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577910\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T05:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T05:51:10","slug":"irankundas-socceroos-teammates-in-awe-world-at-his-feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577910\/","title":{"rendered":"Irankunda’s Socceroos teammates in awe: ‘World at his feet’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nestory Irankunda<\/a> has the world at his feet, goal celebrations on tap and is determined to do something special with the Socceroos<\/a> at the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And coach Tony Popovic believes his rapidly maturing sensation is better placed than ever to succeed.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos learned on Wednesday they will face T\u00fcrkiye<\/a> — who beat Kosovo 1-0<\/a> in their qualifying playoff — in their World Cup opener on June 13, before subsequent group games against the United States<\/a> and Paraguay<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Very strong opponent, compact team, very good team,” striker Deni Juric said of T\u00fcrkiye on Wednesday. “But for us, doesn’t matter who we get. We’re going to look at every game as the same. Every game carries three points.<\/p>\n

– Lynch: How Australia plans to use Irankunda & Co. to surprise Group D<\/a>
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– Meet 2026 World Cup debutants: Cape Verde, Cura\u00e7ao, Jordan, Uzbekistan<\/a><\/p>\n

“So it doesn’t matter who’s on the other side. We know who we are. We know what we want to do, and we’re going head-first in these games<\/p>\n

“We’re gonna prepare 100% for them and hopefully we get the win.”<\/p>\n

As preparations for T\u00fcrkiye begin in earnest, Juric and his teammates will feel they can count on Irankunda after the 20-year-old’s scintillating five-minute brace in Tuesday night’s 5-1<\/a> win over Curacao<\/a> in Melbourne.<\/p>\n

“To come on and then obviously cause some havoc was great, and to get them [the crowd] going was unreal,” Irankunda said. “I’m always focused, always want to make an impact, and always want to play well.<\/p>\n

“And he [Popovic] has the belief in me. And with his belief I’m able to do what I do, which is score from open play now.”<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda scored two goals as Australia defeated Curacao 5-1 on Tuesday.\u00a0Morgan Hancock – FIFA<\/p>\n

Popovic made Irankunda earn his spot, including dropping the then Bayern Munich<\/a> forward in November 2024. Irankunda got to work on loan at Grasshoppers<\/a> in the Swiss Super League<\/a>, and has thrived since moving to Watford<\/a> in England’s second tier.<\/p>\n

“He’s a young man who’s just growing in maturity, not just on the field, but I think off the field,” Popovic said. “He’s adapting, he’s learning. Very good young man. We’ve always had a good relationship, and we just want him to get better.<\/p>\n

“And you can see … when his mind is clear, he wants to contribute, whether that’s a start, whether it’s coming on, whether that’s coming on for one minute.<\/p>\n

“And that’s progression, because maybe in October, November, his mind wasn’t so clear … it’s normal. He’s young, he’s 20 years old. He’s a wonderful talent.<\/p>\n

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“We want him to be happy, want him to enjoy his football. We also want him to understand that he needs to work. Talent’s not enough. It never has been.”<\/p>\n

Popovic was delighted with how Irankunda, best known for thumping long-range goals, created his goals — getting into the box and dribbling. For the first goal, Irankunda dribbled through the Curacao defence and finished at the near post.<\/p>\n

He celebrated with a backflip, then caught a rhinestone glove thrown to him by a friend, put it on and danced like Michael Jackson.<\/p>\n

“It was just great to bring it out and show the people here,” Irankunda said.<\/p>\n

Fellow attacker Riley McGree<\/a> said: “He’s electric, he’s unpredictable, he’s everything you want from a young player.<\/p>\n

“He does have the world at his feet.”<\/p>\n

Irankunda and his teammates are ready for the next step: at June’s World Cup.<\/p>\n

“We have one goal, which is to achieve something great, achieve something that’s never been achieved before,” Irankunda said.<\/p>\n

“We want to be that group that goes all the way and potentially wins the World Cup.<\/p>\n

“No one has the belief in us, obviously, but we have the belief in ourselves to go do something great.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestory Irankunda has the world at his feet, goal celebrations on tap and is determined to do something…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-577910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}