Athletes celebrating goals or achievements with an accompanying favourite song isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but Australia’s rising soccer superstar Nestory Irankunda took the practice up a notch on Tuesday night in the Socceroos’ final match on home soil ahead of their World Cup assault.
As the Socceroos sent spirits soaring with a late flurry of four goals in 17 minutes – a blitzkrieg that popped visiting Curacao’s balloon – 20-year-old Irankunda was in the thick of the assault with a wonderful brace, driving home Australia’s final two goals, the exclamation mark on a 5-1 victory.
How to mark the moment? Cartwheels and backflips were one thing (yes, we saw them again), but Irankunda had another celebration pre-planned.
The Tanzanian-born star was tossed a white glove by a photographer friend, and proceeded to pay tribute to Michael Jackson with some slick dance steps and a crotch-grabbing move.
“He’s my mate. He’s a photographer, and he messaged me on Instagram asking me if I wanted to do something to do with Michael Jackson,” Irankunda explained later when asked how he ended up with the white sequinned glove while still on the pitch.
“I said, ‘yeah for sure’ because he knows I’m a huge fan of Michael Jackson and his music, and it was just great to bring it out.”
Irankunda said Smooth Criminal is his favourite MJ track. His Australian teammates – including a new stock of young Socceroos representatives who seemingly feed off his enthusiasm – knew something different was probably going to happen.
“I was ready to celebrate with him, and he’s like ‘nah, nah. I’m going to do this’,” said Jordan Bos, who had also entered the game as a second-half substitute and scored an impressive goal of his own.
“That glove came out of nowhere. I don’t know where that came from, but it was pretty cool.
“I think he likes, was it Michael Jackson?
“He’s been playing [his music] all camp leading into this.”
Wild goal celebrations aside, Socceroos coach Tony Popovic was beaming with excitement when explaining how Irankunda was expanding his game, becoming an offensive threat both outside and inside the box.
“That’s why I’m really pleased for him,” said Popovic.
The Socceroos mentor knows the sky could be the limit.
“Once he adds that consistently to his game [look out]. We know he [already] has the shot from outside the box, he’ll do one of those every year regardless of where he plays.
“Both [of his] goals were good goals.
“The first one, he dribbles one on one and the second one, he makes a nice little run in the box.
“We want that to continue and that’s why I’m delighted for him.”
Irankunda confirmed he’s been developing that part of his game.
“It’s been a huge focus,” said Irankunda, a player who’s been watched by scouts for years and who broke the A-League transfer record in 2024.
“To be with the national team … that’s what he wants from me. He wants me to get in the box.
“And he even wants me to do our club level as well … I also have to take back, take that back to Watford as well. And just to do it under the boss was great.
“It was a relief, you know because we’ve been working on it for a long time.”
Popovic turned to his main guns Bos, Riley McGree, Irankunda and Cameron Burgess as part of a mass substitution in the 66th minute and the moves paid almost immediate rewards – an avalanche of goals that turned a sometimes dour contest into a rout.
In terms of a coach flicking the switch, it was like Popovic went for light in the house.
Irankunda drew on the crowd’s energy as the green and gold brigade were sparked into action.
“Yeah, 100 per cent. The crowd were helping us throughout the game. You know [they] did go a bit quiet, but to come on and then obviously pull some havoc was, was great,” he said.
Less than three months before they take on Paraguay, the US and third nation – a European play-off winner– at the World Cup, Irankunda believes Australia can rattle a few cages on the sport’s biggest stage.
“It’s not about upsetting [other teams],” he said.
“I feel like we have one goal, which is to achieve something great, achieve something that’s never been achieved before. We want to be that group that goes all the way and potentially wins the World Cup.
“We have the belief in ourselves to go do something.”
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