It has been a massive last 24 months for Socceroos star Craig Goodwin, who just last week took out the Johnny Warren Medal; officially being crowned as the A-league’s best player.
Rewind to last November, Goodwin scored Australia’s opening goal at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar against then-defending champion France to give the Aussies a shock lead.
But it hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Goodwin, with his father Tony telling Flow FM that despite several cruel setbacks across his junior and senior career, his son just didn’t have it in him to give up on the game.
It is rhetoric that draws obvious parallels to the plight of Australian manager Ange Postecoglou, who has just been announced as the new manager of Tottenham Hotspur and in doing so will become the first Australian to ever manage in the English Premier League, often cited as the highest level of the game.
Postecoglou once considered himself unemployable after an infamous live interview with the now head of Australia’s Republican movement Craig Foster, who in 2007 scolded the Greek-born South Melbourne legend.
Postecoglou was frozen out of Australian football for a large period of time and it took former National Team coach Frank Farina being handed a drink-driving charge in late 2010 for him to re-enter the limelight with Brisbane Roar.
Since then, Postecoglou’s career trajectory has been like no other in Australia.
Around the same time, Craig Goodwin, after being rejected by his hometown club Adelaide United, journeyed to the big smoke of Melbourne, penniless and with an unknown reputation.
He didn’t have the cash to fill his car up at times and worked at KFC while trying to keep his head down in his spare time, perfecting his abilities with the ball, hoping someone, somewhere, would notice his talent.
After stints at Melbourne City and Newcastle Jets, Goodwin eventually landed back in Adelaide as a prized capture and the rest is history.
He has found himself playing overseas in lucrative Asian leagues and in Holland’s famed Eredivisie.
Starring for the Socceroos at the World Cup last year is his greatest foray in football without question, though Goodwin got to experience Ange Postecoglou’s mentorship in various Socceroos camps as well as coming off the bench against England in a 2016 friendly in London.
His father, Tony, discussed his son’s time under Postecoglou, who is now unquestionably Australian football’s most prized asset.
“It's obviously massive, but he's [Postecoglou] done the hard yards right from the days prior to South Melbourne right up until now and I think it'll help the world take notice of Australian coaches and more of our players. But to see him coaching a club as big as Tottenham, I think is amazing,” Goodwin said.
Because if you look, a lot of our coaches, if they go over there, it's usually third, fourth division type units and you set up to fail because they just don't have the money to provide you with the assets you need to get your job done.
“But Ange has proved himself with Yokohama and obviously with Celtic in a major way, all the doubts when he started and the hate that he got, they all soon disappeared - but getting the gig at Tottenham, that's the pinnacle.
“If he can be successful there then God knows what can happen for his career from that point on, I think it will now benefit Australian football in a massive way and make more of the world take notice of us on the back of obviously the Socceroos performances at the World Cup.
“I think the planets have aligned on that, coaches and players too, so hopefully a little bit more focus on our game in this country and our players and their coaches.”
Bình luận