Harry Kewell may no longer be shooting goals for Australia, but he is bringing his insights as a player and manager to the SBS World Cup team this month, with high hopes for the Socceroos to go further than ever before.
When Harry Kewell was on the field for Australia’s first match of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, waiting for the referee to start the match, all he was thinking was ‘Boy, you better give me that ball and I will do the rest!’
Australian football legend Harry, 47, will be joining the SBS broadcast lineup for the upcoming FIFA World Cup which kicks off this June, hosted jointly by the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Expected to be watched by an incredible six billion people across the planet, there is no other sporting tournament like the FIFA World Cup. The chance to see stars of the game like Kylian Mbappé (France), Erling Haaland (Norway) and Harry Kane (England) has fuelled record ticket sales for the tournament, which will have an expanded 48 teams, up from 32 in 2022. It is simply the biggest World Cup in history.
And Aussies love their football, with almost a million of us watching the 2am final in 2022 on SBS which saw Argentinian captain Lionel Messi lift the coveted trophy, after beating France 4-2 in a penalty shoot out.
Far from longing to be on the pitch – ‘my time has been’ – Harry cannot wait to see the new tournament format in 2026, and be part of the ‘SBS team.’ “Everything relies on me bringing the best out of my team (as a manager). Now I feel like I’m the left winger coming in and playing as part of a team.”
A veteran of two World Cups, 58 caps and 17 goals wearing the green and gold, Harry is arguably Australia’s most famous football export – leaving Club Marconi in Bossley Park at 15 to join Leeds United Football Club juniors in the UK, transitioning to the top team at just 17. At that tender age he became one of the Socceroos’ youngest-ever debutants, playing a key role in taking the squad back to the World Cup 2006 for the first time since 1974.
Harry left Leeds and spent five years with Liverpool, winning the UEFA Champions League in 2005 with the world-famous Merseyside club.
While Harry retired in 2014, he has continued his passion for the game as a manager, and now works in Vietnam with Hanoi FC.
We chatted via Zoom during a break from training his charges in Vietnam about what he is looking forward to seeing at the World Cup.
It will be Harry’s second time providing top World Cup analysis for SBS, and while he won’t be on the pitch, Harry says he will still feel the pressure. “Everyone’s hearing your voice and you don’t want to make a mistake. It’s one of those things where you’re out of your comfort zone.
“Like I always say, when I’m on the pitch, it’s like my home. I’ve been on a football pitch my whole life, so that’s where I feel the most comfortable in my world.”
Harry says his unique angle will be as a former player and manager. “I know the pressures and I know the frustration. I’ve always seen the game differently to other people. When I make an analysis of a game, I will say it from the heart. I won’t be criticising because I’ve been in that role as a player, knowing that in a split second, things can change.”
Harry will be located in the Sydney studio in Artarmon with the SBS line-up, which will include presenters Niav Owens and Claudio Fabiano. It will make for a lot of late nights and early mornings.
“That’s normal in football,” Harry states. “Being in Hanoi, a lot of the European games that we watch are at two, three o’clock in the morning. If you want to watch the A League, they’re at 1 or 2am. So you sleep when you sleep, you work when you work, and then you watch games when you can.”
Harry with one of his Hanoi FC charges
Harry will be running on ‘pure adrenaline.’ “You’re watching the best players represent their country in a competition that the whole world will watch. The world actually stops for this event because everyone wants to know who wins it. For me it’s the excitement, the thought of watching a World Cup which only comes around every four years. And it takes a lot out of the players to qualify.
“People think Australia should qualify all the time. (But) Asian football is coming up and becoming stronger and more difficult. The competition is getting harder. But that’s what you want. Nothing should be easy to get to a World Cup. You have to perform at your very best to qualify to represent your country.”
Australia will face Türkiye, the USA and Paraguay in Group D, which will be ‘exciting, but tough,’ admits Harry. “But there are opportunities with the three teams that we’re playing for Australia to turn over.
“The Turkish side will definitely have a lot more quality and skill, but the mentality and strength of this Australian team can actually work. So if we stick together and we’re a unit, we can really get something out of the Turkish game.”
Then the Socceroos face home team USA in the second match, currently ranked 16th in the world, with Australia 27th. “They’re on home soil, they’ll have the crowd, but again, there are opportunities within that. Then finally with Paraguay, we’ve played them a couple of times, and I believe that anything could happen.”
The rigours of a World Cup, where players must play up to five matches just to get to the Round of 16 (which Australia has reached the last two tournaments), are well known. With the tournament scheduled to run from 11 June to the final on 19 July, how does the team prepare?
Nestory Irankunda
Jordy Bos
Maty Ryan
Tony Popovic
Socceroos head coach Tony Popovic revealed back in March he had spoken to coaches from other formats, including rugby great and former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones, for advice on how to keep the team motivated and focussed for a six-week tournament. “Because we want to hit the ground running at the highest level (in round one). But we also don’t want to fall off a cliff straight after the first game.
So how do you keep going that way?”
I ask Harry how players will keep their minds sharp and body strong during the campaign. “Honestly, Michelle, it’s easy, you know why? Because you’re doing something you love, you’re performing on the biggest stage in the world.
“And let’s face it, every country now has a unique setup, the training facilities are incredible, the hotels are fantastic, the staff are amazing, everything there is like a six-star hotel for that player. So we’ve created this environment for the player to fully concentrate on his role.”
Harry at the 2006 World Cup just after scoring the crucial goal against Croatia which sent Australia through to the Round of 16
That said, players who do not normally play together need to perform as a team seamlessly at the world’s biggest tournament. Most of the Socceroos live overseas where they play in the English Premier League (EPL), European and South American leagues, only coming together for friendlies, such as the March matches in Sydney and Melbourne against Cameroon and Curaçao.
As their club commitments have wound up all over the world, Socceroos have flown into base camp in Oakland, California, just before friendlies against Mexico on 30 May at Rose Bowl, Los Angeles and Switzerland on 7 June at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. The 26-man squad is announced on 1 June.
Harry, who affectionately calls the Socceroos ‘my team,’ is expecting Australia to make the Round of 16.
“I think the way that the team’s been structured over the last few campaigns with Graham Arnold has been excellent, and the last World Cup was exceptional,” he reflects.
“Even if you go back to 2006 when we lost, it was to (eventual) world champions Italy. We had a moment in 2006 where we put Italy underpressure, and the last World Cup we also had (similar) moments. (We need to capitalise) on those moments.
“Popovic has got good control, he’s very strong in his mind and the way that he wants to play, and I think that he’ll get his team into position.
“Australia is probably going to be one of those teams where we’re going to have to be defensively sound, but then when we get a chance to break, to counter, we have to go with speed, we have to go with purpose, and we have to take our chances. We (must look to) some of our exciting young players coming through.”
This includes rising EPL star Nestory Irankunda, 20, who came to Australia as a refugee aged three months from Burundi. The winger, who plays for Watford, has already scored five goals for the Socceroos and is known for his post-goal Michael Jackson dance and backflips.
“The one thing that Australians are good at is going out there and not being scared.”
Harry Kewell
Feyenoord left back Jordy Bos, 23, is no stranger to scoring goals for his Dutch side and will add some flair to the green and gold defence. Italian-born Alessandro Circati, 22, could have played for the Azzurri, moving to Perth when just a baby. He was selected for the U20 Azzurri, but pledged allegiance to the green and gold in 2023. At 22, the defender has captained both Australia and Parma, his side in the Italian Serie A.
Lynchpin of the team is goalkeeper and captain Maty Ryan, who grew up learning his craft in Blacktown. Maty will be heading to the USA from Spain, where he plays for Levante in La Liga. A veteran of three World Cups, Maty’s mantra is that ‘actions always speak louder than words.’ “People can always talk, but demonstrating out on the pitch, and a great form of leadership, is a player that is able to produce for their team in a moment, perhaps when things are up against them,” the captain said in Sydney when the Socceroos were in town for their March friendlies.
As for the pressure the players will feel representing their country at the highest level, Harry says ‘the only pressure that a player could feel would be the pressure that he puts on himself.’
“That’s where a good manager will come into it and take that pressure away from him, and be saying, ‘You’re here for a reason, you’ve done the hard work by qualifying, now it’s time to perform.’
“I think sometimes a lot of teams smother themselves because they think, ‘We’re at a World Cup, let’s change the way we play.’
“The one thing that Australians are good at is going out there and not being scared.”
With his own charges at Hanoi FC, Harry works to understand their strengths, and get the best out of them. “I love making players better,” he says emphatically. “I absolutely love coaching.” The boys have a keen willingness to learn, which is most of the battle, says Harry. “As a coach, all you want to do is go to a place where you want players to learn. And if you can get that into it as a coach, it becomes exciting.”
Hanoi FC has players from Brazil as well as Vietnam, but language is no barrier. “Football is a language within itself. (It doesn’t matter) where you are.” Having played in Türkiye, managed in Japan and now Vietnam, Harry knows a thing or two about overcoming cultural and linguistic divides. And with it, long periods of separation from his family.
Wife Sheree Murphy and their four children live in Manchester, UK, home base for Harry.
“My wife knows that she married a footballer, right? She knows that she married someone that loves his work. And the great thing about my work is I can work anywhere in the world. But unfortunately, there comes a time, especially in a family, that you’ve got to have a base. You’ve got to have roots.”
With Argentina hoping to win back to back trophies – a feat only Brazil during Pele’s heyday has performed – there are rumours Lionel Messi (pictured lifting the 2022 World Cup) will once again run out on the pitch, at 38, in his sixth World Cup
With his two youngest children, Matilda and Dolly still at school, Harry is able to see the family when they can travel. “But they’ve still got to have their own lives. And my family has always been good to be able to let me go off and do what I’ve got to do.
“But I won’t lie to you, Michelle, this one has been tough,”
Harry reveals of the move to Vietnam last October. After finishing up at Yokohoma F. Marinos in Japan in 2024, Harry spent many months at home in Manchester, ‘getting back in with the family.’ It has made the distance harder. “This time, I really do miss my family,” he admits.
For now, Harry is looking forward to arriving in Sydney at the end of Hanoi FC’s season and getting into World Cup mode. His message to the Socceroos is simple: “Listen to your manager. Because he’ll have all the information about what needs to happen in the game. And he will put you in the right positions to get the best out of not only yourself, but the team.”
And Australia will be right behind the Socceroos, cheering them on every step of the way.
WATCH THE SOCCEROOS ON SBS
Group D
Sunday, 14 June, 2pm*
Australia v Türkiye
BC Place, Vancouver, Canada
Saturday, 20 June, 5am
Australia v USA
Seattle Stadium, USA
Friday, 26 June, 12pm
Australia v Paraguay
San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, USA
*All times AEST