Why Croatian-born player chose Australia... and why Aussie-born player chose Croatia

Ante Suto has ticked off a lot of ‘firsts’ this week.

First time in Australia - tick. First time in Socceroos camp - tick. First time speaking to Australia’s football media while standing under a beautiful old tree across the road from Allianz Stadium - tick, tick, tick.

Within a couple of minutes of his time with the press beginning, it became clear that Suto is probably going to become a cult hero.

“It’s been part of my life since I knew about myself,” Suto said of his Australian identity, which he gained through his father, who is from Melbourne.

“Now it’s crazy to be here. It happened so quickly, but I’m so happy and so proud to be here.”

It’s a quite remarkable place to be for a man who grew up in a Croatian village of 2,000 people, quite a world away from where he’ll find himself tomorrow night.

But far from being overawed by the occasion, Suto seems to be made for it. Have a read of what he had to say yesterday and you’ll see what I mean.

Speaking of big occasions at Sydney’s Stadium Australia… so many Soceroos fans remember where they were when Tomi Juric set up James Troisi to score the winner in the 2015 Asian Cup final.

Deni Juric does too. He was in - you guessed it - Croatia, with tears rolling down his face as he watched his big brother help the Socceroos achieve something they never had before.

The pair have an unshakeable bond, and listening to Deni talking about their relationship yesterday was almost enough to make tears start streaming down my face.

“It’s always a privilege to watch him put on the jersey,” Deni Juric told reporters on Wednesday, speaking about Tomi.

“Every time he put it on it was like I was wearing the jersey – and I was at home or at the stadium!

“Because obviously it’s been a dream for him and myself to play for the Socceroos and just to see him playing for them is a privilege for me, just to say my brother was able to play for the Socceroos.”

Now Tomi might be able to say the same thing, with Deni poised to make his debut for Australia’s senior side after a false start last year when he was forced to leave Socceroos camp due to injury.

It was one of several setbacks that, at 28 years old, might have left Juric feeling like he’ll never be able to emulate his brother.

That might still be the case, but the journey he’s been on just to get to this point means there’ll be many fans in the stands on Friday hoping he gets a run.

Josip Simunic is probably best known in Australia for his role in the famous 2006 World Cup clash between Croatia and the Socceroos, in which he was sent off after receiving three yellow cards from English referee Graham Poll.

Now Simunic, who was born and raised in Canberra before opting to represent Croatia, has played a key role in another notorious incident involving both countries - the change of allegiance of Adrian Segecic.

It turns out Simunic was the one who put the Croatian FA in touch with Segecic’s father, getting the ball rolling in a process that ended with the younger Segecic officially declaring his desire to play for Croatia last week.

He is now in camp with their Under-21 side, and has spoken in detail about the process he went through to reach that decision.

“The first person to call me was Ivica Olić, and he asked if I wanted to come and play for Croatia,” Segecic told Croatian outlet Slobodna Dalmacija.

“The decision was mine, but I didn’t make it right away, I wanted to think about it. It wasn’t an easy decision.

“I also spoke with Joe Šimunić, as well as other players from Australia who were in a similar situation. Then I called Ivica back and told him my decision.”

Olic himself revealed that when he called Segecic’s father, he was encouraged to see a Croatian flag on his Whatsapp profile picture, an indication of just how complex this whole situation is.

Find out more about the background to Segecic’s decision in this article.

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What’s going on with Cameroon?

The Indomitable Lions are looking decidedly domitable heading into their clash with the Socceroos tomorrow night, having missed out on World Cup qualification late last year.

Cameroon rolled into town this week led by their relatively new coach, David Pagou, who is the yin to the yang of Samuel Eto’o, the former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker who these days heads up the Cameroon Football Federation.

Eto’o was the architect of a purge of sorts within the national team over the past few years, which has seen big names like ex-captain Vincent Aboubakar and former Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana discarded.

Current Man United star Bryan Mbeumo is the main man for Cameroon on the pitch these days, but sadly he didn’t travel to Australia, leaving the visitors desperately short of big-name firepower.

But that appears to be by design, as I discovered after reading this wonderful scene-setter by veteran writer Tony Harper.

Tomorrow is an absolutely massive day of World Cup qualification action, especially in Europe, where 16 teams will be playing for the right to feature in next week’s winner-takes-all matches where the prize is a ticket to North America.

Chief among them is Italy, the four-time World Cup winners who are desperately hoping to avoid missing out on their third consecutive tournament, a scarcely imaginable scenario for such a proud footballing nation.

“It’s undeniable that there’s nervousness,” said Italy coach Gennaro Gattuso this week.

“Only someone without blood running through their veins wouldn’t feel it. But we need to do a good job of transmitting a lot of positivity.”

Gattuso’s actions didn’t quite match his words, with the Italy coach admitting he chose to play tomorrow’s game against Northern Ireland at the 23,000-seat Stadio di Bergamo instead of the imposing San Siro in Milan, for fear of how the Milanese fans might react if the game doesn’t start well.

Then again, after reading the article below I can somewhat understand the decision - it’s fair to say fans and ex-players across Italy will be baying for blood if tomorrow’s game doesn’t go well.

Italy are far from the only big-time nation participating in tomorrow’s qualifiers, with Denmark, Poland (featuring Robert Lewandowski), Sweden and Czechia also in action.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the games between Turkiye and Romania, and Slovakia vs Kosovo, with one of those teams to join the Socceroos in Group D at this year’s World Cup.

The intercontinental playoffs are also on tomorrow, with Oceania’s New Caledonia hoping for a miracle against Jamaica, while Bolivia take on Suriname, with the winner of that game to face Graham Arnold’s Iraq next week.

Get the full list of World Cup qualifying fixtures here.

If you’re a Liverpool fan still coming to terms with yesterday’s news that Mohamed Salah will be leaving the club at the end of this season, you can at least take solace in the way the departure is playing out.

So far, at least, all parties seem to be handling it with class and dignity, something that looked much less likely when the Egyptian superstar was left out of the line-up for a few games earlier in the season after his infamous comments about being “thrown under the bus”.

It seems his relationship with Reds fans remains in tact, with Salah paying particular tribute to them in his heartfelt farewell message.

“I wanted to start by saying that I never imagined how deeply this club, this city, these people would become part of my life. Liverpool is not just a football club. It’s a passion, it’s a history, it’s a spirit. I can’t explain in words to anyone not of this club.”

So, what comes next for Salah?

Most of the speculation points to the Middle East, and Saudi Arabia in particular, given Saudi club Al Ittihad previously made an audacious £150m bid for Salah.

This story from the BBC runs through all the options for where Salah could end up, while this provocative article on ESPN claimed Salah should go down as the greatest Premier League player of all time.