The Socceroos have named a 26-man squad for this month’s friendlies against Ecuador.
There are six inclusions from the squad that went to last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar, with one player in particular a big addition in Alex Robertson.
Robertson, 19, currently plays for Manchester City and is edging closer to a first-team debut and while he was raised in Sydney, he had the option to play for England, Scotland and Peru.
Having represented England as a junior, SEN’s Simon Hill says Australia would have been thrilled that the young midfielder chose the green and gold as he’s rated highly by City coach Pep Guardiola.
“There’s a few interesting names that have been selected by Graham Arnold,” Hill told SEN 1170 Mornings.
“Not least Alex Robertson who is a young midfielder playing at Manchester City.
“Pep Guardiola clearly seems to rate him quite highly, he sat on the bench against RB Leipzig in the UEFA Champions League last week, he might be on the bench for the return leg this week.
“He’s very much on the fringe of the big time for a very big club in the English Premier League.”
Hill says coach Graham Arnold put in a raft of work to get Robertson to align with Australia and the teenager now has a chance to follow in the footsteps of his family in the green and gold.
“He’s following in a great tradition, his father Mark Robertson was a Socceroo and his grandfather Alex was a Socceroo as well,” Hill said.
“It’s taken quite a bit of time for Arnie to convince him that his future is with Australia because of course he has got the option to play for England as well, he has played for their junior teams.
“He’s fully committed to Australia, so he’s one name to keep an eye on and it’ll be interesting to see if he gets a debut in that two-game series.”
The Socceroos face Ecuador in Sydney on Friday, March 24 before heading to Melbourne on Tuesday, March 28.