{"id":54641,"date":"2026-06-15T14:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/world-cup-2026-nestory-irankunda-the-refugee-who-quit-bayern-to-make-australia-history\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:02:27","slug":"world-cup-2026-nestory-irankunda-the-refugee-who-quit-bayern-to-make-australia-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/world-cup-2026-nestory-irankunda-the-refugee-who-quit-bayern-to-make-australia-history\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Nestory Irankunda &#8211; the refugee who quit Bayern to make Australia history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He played 42 games for Championship club Watford, scored four goals and made five to ensure he was selected for the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Now he has created history for his country and in style, too. His finish was superb after he showed pace and power to create the opening in the 27th minute against Turkey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter what level of football you play at, in the park or World Cup, that is fantastic speed,&#8221; former Australia and Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou told ITV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It meant he was the first player born outside of Australia to score a World Cup goal for the Socceroos. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has in the past mimicked Michael Jackson in celebrating goals, even donning a white glove in March when he netted against Curacao.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This time he opted to copy former Australia and Everton midfielder Tim Cahill by giving the corner flag a couple of punches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Timmy Cahill is my biggest inspiration when it comes to football,&#8221; Irankunda said after the win over Turkey.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Him and Lionel Messi. Tim Cahill, Australia&#8217;s greatest in my opinion. I just thought if I scored, I&#8217;ll do the same as him and I got to do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Postecoglou believes the goal may have an impact on Irankunda&#8217;s future career. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;A massive moment,&#8221; added Postecoglou. &#8220;Sometimes in World Cups, you just need a good couple of weeks and your whole world can change. Let&#8217;s hope that is the start for him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/articles\/c33y424vv4zo?at_medium=RSS&#038;at_campaign=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He played 42 games for Championship club Watford, scored four goals and made five to ensure he was selected for the World Cup. Now he has created history for his country and in style, too. His finish was superb after he showed pace and power to create the opening in the 27th minute against Turkey. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[409,8535,805,1166,15581,15580,1133,6438,510],"class_list":["post-54641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","tag-australia","tag-bayern","tag-cup","tag-history","tag-irankunda","tag-nestory","tag-quit","tag-refugee","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54643,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54641\/revisions\/54643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}