Captain Mile cool, calm and collected
WHEN then prime minister Tony Abbott posted a video on YouTube wishing Australia luck ahead of its 2014 World Cup match against Chile, he referred to the Socceroos captain as “Mike” Jedinak.
Yesterday there was no mistaking Mile Jedinak’s name as the current PM Malcolm Turnbull celebrated the skipper’s three- goal heroics against Honduras the night before, goals which catapulted Australia into a fourth successive World Cup.
“Mile Jedinak, three goals, that’s the captain’s knock,” Turnbull said in front of thousands of fans at a celebration event in Sydney’s Martin Place. He’s a quiet achiever, Jedinak. That could be seen in his “celebration” for the first of his three goals on Wednesday, evoking shades of Mark Bresciano against Uruguay at the same ground in 2005 when he basically posed as a statue for his teammates to climb on board.
It was symbolic as, for the two legs of this successful playoff, Jedinak shouldered an amazing burden both in terms of putting his own body through the wringer and also leading from the front when his country needed him most.
All around Australia yesterday Jedinak was the man on everyone’s lips.
But there’s a fair chance a few Gen Y types will be having those lips covered in the months to come in widespread attempts to replicate the “People’s Beard”.
If his Wikipedia page was to be believed at various stages on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Jedinak is favourite to win the Ballon d’Or for world’s best player of 2017 and is also “a God among men”.
Not bad for a bloke whose professional career had the most humble beginnings: an injury replacement at the Central Coast Mariners in 2007, won after he spent months driving back and forth between Western Sydney and Gosford in the hopes of securing a deal.
“This probably means more than I can describe,” Jedinak said when asked what World Cup qualification meant to him. “It’s probably right up there ( as a career- best moment). With all things considered, definitely.
“I’m a bit lost words on how I am feeling but I am immensely proud of everybody and what we’ve done tonight.”
Eventually the aches and pains will hit, but for now the euphoria is Jedinak’s main emotion.
Jedinak, 33, eventually succumbed to a nagging groin injury in June and underwent surgery after Australia’s World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia. Between then and October 28 he managed 45 minutes for Villa before two substitute appearances for the English Championship side on the eve of the Honduras games gave coach Ange Postecoglou scope to pick him. He didn’t let him down.
But, to be fair, in a glittering career that has seen him play in Turkey, captain Crystal Palace in the English Premier League and now play for Villa, he rarely has let anyone down.