CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Nestory Irankunda is officially the greatest Australian that ever lived, and One Nation has plummeted 15% in opinion polls, it can be confirmed.
This comes after the 20-year-old from North Adelaide officially kicked off Australia's FIFA World Cup campaign with a gritty and unanswered goal in the 27th minute of yesterday's gloriously patriotic 2-0 victory of Turkiyë in Vancouver.
Much like the Matildas world cup tilt in 2023, the Socceroos have reminded the nation that Aussie patriotism comes in all colours and creeds - and we would only deprive ourselves of international sporting glory if we were to let our national identity be defined by a bitter and twisted cohort of sex-crazed and disgraced boomer drunks in Canberra.
Overnight, support for Pauline Hanson's One Nation has plummeted to alarmingly low levels not seen since those boys with really hard to pronounce last names took us all the way to the finals in 2006.
But Australia's footballing glory is not only dependent on migrants - it also appears that refugees are what makes the difference between a minnow Oceanic pool appearance and an emerging dark horse of the world cup.
Similar to the 1990s boom of war-weary Eastern Europeans in the Socceroos, there are among six players of African descent wearing the green and gold at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as Australian football enters it's exciting Afro-revolution that has has already seen us topple a Mediterranean nation of 90 million people who only play soccer.
The now household-famous Socceroos star, Irankunda, 20, and teammate Mohamed Touré, 22, both migrated to Australia as refugee children from Africa. Last night the two of them paid tribute to the history and legacy of Aussie football by emulating the iconic post-goal celebration made famous by Timmy Cahill - a Samoan-Australian that both of them grew up worshipping on SBS broadcasts.
As was proven by the TV ratings records that were shattered by the Matildas in 2024 - The Socceroos have once against shown that multiculturalism is key to not only Australian sporting glory - but also unity - as public screenings of the first pool match attract hundreds of thousands of cheering Aussie fans - far more than One Nation would ever be able to get at a political rally in any city.
