Forward says One Nation leader’s comments made him ‘emotional’
Players upset ‘because there’s so many young blokes that look up to us’
Pauline Hanson’s claims that the national men’s football team represented a monocultural Australia angered many Socceroos during this year’s World Cup, Nestory Irankunda has said.
The One Nation leader’s comments came a week after the team beat Turkey in their opening match of the group stage at the tournament in North America.
After her National Press Club speech, in which she declared Australia cannot be multicultural and must exist as a “monocultural society”, Hanson hit back at claims the team would not have won the game under her policy. She said: “The Socceroos represent my vision of a monocultural Australia.”
But Irankunda, the forward who scored Australia’s first goal of the tournament during the match in Vancouver, said many Socceroos disagreed with her comments.
“It did make a lot of us boys angry – I won’t lie,” he ABC radio on Wednesday. “I felt a bit emotional but then tried to forget about it.
“I always tell people I’m Australian, and it really did upset me, and it upset a lot of the other boys to see things and hear things like that, especially because there’s so many young blokes that look up to us.”
The 20-year-old, who moved to Portuguese champions Sporting CP for a reported fee of up to $32m following his World Cup success, was born in a Tanzanian refugee camp to Burundian parents.
Fellow Socceroo Awer Mabil was born in a Kenyan refugee camp to South Sudanese parents and was named Young Australian of the Year in 2023.
After the team was knocked out of the World Cup, Mabil hit back at Hanson’s suggestion Australia was not a multicultural society, calling her claims “bullshit”.
Earlier in the tournament, Australian players released a video embracing the team’s migrant roots, in which midfielder Jackson Irvine said: “The Socceroos aren’t just a team, we are a reflection of modern Australia.”
“There’s people like me and Awer, Mohamed Touré that go out there … and try to do the right thing, and we do, do the right thing,” Irankunda said.
“I don’t like how they try and put us in the whole same category as the other people that do bad.”
Asked if he would speak with the One Nation senator, the 20-year-old poured cold water on the suggestion.
“I’m still upset about some of the things she said in the past,” he said. “I’m not someone who likes to jump into controversial things or political stuff, but you never know – one day I could be on the phone with her or sitting in an office chatting.”
Australia national football team – Socceroos
