{"id":431737,"date":"2026-05-08T12:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/431737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:46:15","slug":"if-big-clubs-are-looking-wonderful-australia-boss-on-irankunda-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/431737\/","title":{"rendered":"‘If big clubs are looking, wonderful’ \u2013 Australia boss on Irankunda future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia boss Tony Popovic says transfer speculation linking Nestory Irankunda with a Premier League move is “positive” but stressed that the Watford attacker should focus on their World Cup campaign.<\/p>\n

A report last week<\/a> suggested Bayer Leverkusen, Everton and Crystal Palace were watching Irankunda, who contributed four goals and five assists in his debut season at Vicarage Road.<\/p>\n

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It was not entirely smooth sailing for the 20-year-old, who was substituted in the first half at Portsmouth by Paulo Pezzolano in October, largely sidelined by Javi Gracia, and told he was not fulfilling his potential<\/a> by Ed Still.<\/p>\n

More: The key stats that sum up Watford’s defensive disruption this season<\/a><\/p>\n

But Irankunda also showed signs of immense talent that will not have gone unnoticed elsewhere and was a standout player during a really poor finish to the campaign.<\/p>\n

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Popovic is hoping the attacker can prove his talent on the world stage in USA, Mexico and Canada.<\/p>\n

He said: “That type of speculation is positive.<\/p>\n

“There’s nothing negative about that. If the boy’s doing well and big clubs are looking at him, that’s wonderful.<\/p>\n

“We shouldn’t look at that as anything that’s not in a positive spirit. The boy will have a little break now and he’ll come in and I think we know how talented he is.<\/p>\n

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“He’s a slightly young player. He’s a wonderful young man, so I have a good relationship with him and I don’t want to make too much of it.<\/p>\n

“I just want him to come in and enjoy the journey towards the World Cup and try and make sure that he\u2019s at his very best on the bigger stage.”<\/p>\n

(Image: Reuters)<\/p>\n

Irankunda is one of a few exciting Australian youngsters set to head to the tournament, another of whom is Norwich City striker and Irankunda’s close friend Mo Toure.<\/p>\n

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Popovic has in mind to balance out the youthful exuberance in his squad with enough seasoned options, as they prepare to take on T\u00fcrkiye, USA and Paraguay in Group D.<\/p>\n

He said: “We’re all excited about the youngsters.<\/p>\n

“I think I’m the first to say that I’m very excited about the young group coming through and I’m sure in the next four and eight years we should have a good core group of young players to move the Socceroos forward.<\/p>\n

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More: Maamma and Bove reflect on difficult second half of the season<\/a><\/p>\n

“So there’s an eye on now and there’s an eye on the future but if you watch the game that was just played, Matthew Leckie was the best player on the park.<\/p>\n

“A 35 year-old with no football under his belt. That a young player can\u2019t do as yet.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia boss Tony Popovic says transfer speculation linking Nestory Irankunda with a Premier League move is “positive” but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[972,170687,245,41741,41742,85,46,202488,202491,1326,202486,56597,2619,105,202490,202487,202489],"class_list":["post-431737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-australia","tag-bayer-leverkusen","tag-canada","tag-crystal-palace","tag-everton","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-javi-gracia","tag-matthew-leckie","tag-mexico","tag-nestory-irankunda","tag-paraguay","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-standout-player","tag-tony-popovic","tag-world-cup-campaign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}