Australia - Europe

I wanna talk a bit about Australia soccer (football). As fans know the soccer in Australia is improving, I realized that the Australian players are mainly comes from the Europe and play in European club, but represent Australia. It's OK for me, but it is quite interesting.

Mark Viduka (picture) for example, he was a former captain of the Australian national team (Socceroos), but he has the Croatian descent. He did pretty well in the Socceroos, and helping them to enter the World Cup in 2006. However he is still struggling with the injuries so he needed to retire from the international football. He is one of the examples of the Australian European.

Mark Schwarzer (picture), is the other example who has the other European descent. He has German descent even though he plays for the Socceroos. He was the crucial hero for qualifying the World cup 2006. He made 2 saves in the penalty shootout against Uruguay to lead the team to qualify. He is now transferred to Fulham from Middlesborough but before that, he was rumoured to transfer to Bayern Munich just becoz of he has German descent. Anyway, he did played in Bundesliga for a long time.

In opposite, some players are born or grown up in Australia but playing the other countries. Many of you know Christian Vieri (picture), right? He born in Italy but grew up in Australia, and he was one of the most important player in Italy. He had a great career in soccer and he is one of the best strikers in the world. This season even though he wasn't a regular starter in Fiorentina, but I think he is the important bench player in the team. Don't forget he is now going to 35. In soccer, he is very old man now.

Josip Simunic (picture), probably you may remember he has special "discount" in World Cup 2006, getting 3 yellow cards before he was sent off. He actually born in Australia and grew up there. If I'm right, he also gained a scholarship from Australia Institute of Sports (AIS). However, he chose to represent Croatia and played against Australia in World Cup 2006. Even though he didn't do well in Hertha Berlin this season, he is one of the players who made from Australia.

I'm not claiming any credits here, I just wanna say - who said Australia didn't contribute to the soccer world??