Adelaide United’s Bayern Munich-bound winger Nestory Irankunda has been left out of Australia’s Olympic Games qualifiers despite the squad missing serious star power with many European-based players deemed unavailable by their clubs.
Marco Tilio has won a recall to the Olyroos’ U23 Asian Cup squad as Australia bid to qualify for the Olympic Games later this year.
After missing out on last month’s WAFF Championship with injury, the Melbourne City winger will boost coach Tony Vidmar’s attacking stocks as he seeks to book his side’s ticket to Paris.
Adelaide United’s Nestory Irankunda. (Photo by Sarah Reed/Getty Images)
Australia must finish in the top three to automatically qualify for this year’s Olympics, while the fourth-placed side at the tournament held in Qatar between April 8 and May 3 heads into a play-off.
The absence of Irankunda is a head scratcher with the 18-year-old fresh off a stunning hat-trick against Western United last week.
Graham Arnold faced calls to include him in the seniors Socceroo team but deemed him not ready. While that makes some sense it’s harder to understand why he misses out on the under 23s.
The welcome inclusion of Tilio, who scored in Australia’s win over Argentina at the Tokyo Games, is offset by the absences of several players.
Parma defender Alessandro Circati, Hearts midfielder Calem Niuewenhof and newly-capped Socceroo Patrick Yazbek of Norwegian club Viking have not gained releases from their clubs given the tournament falls outside international windows.
“I feel for those who’ve not been given the opportunity to join us, as representing your country at any level is something you never forget, and they would have benefited greatly from the experience,” Vidmar said.
Along with Tilio and Alou Kuol, who is joined in the squad by his Holland-based brother Garang, there are 13 other players called up from the A-League Men.
Australia face Jordan, Indonesia and hosts Qatar in the group stage.
If the Olyroos make it out of that, a clash with heavyweights South Korea or Japan represent their most likely quarter-final opponents.
Tony Vidmar. (Photo by Alex Grimm – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
OLYROOS SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Patrick Beach, Cameron Cook, Steven Hall
Defenders: Jordan Courtney-Perkins, Jacob Farrell, Jake Girdwood-Reich, Jacob Italiano, Mark Natta, Alexandar Popovic, Callum Talbot
Midfielders: Louis D’Arrigo, Jake Hollman, Adrian Segecic, Ryan Teague, Jordi Valadon, Rhys Youlley
Forwards: Lachlan Brook, Alou Kuol, Garang Kuol, Nicolas Milanovic, Mohamed Toure, Nishan Velupillay.