Kye rises from Palm Beach junior to World Cup player
KYE Rowles has capped a remarkable rise through the Australian football ranks with his maiden World Cup selection for the Socceroos.
The Palm Beach junior was unveiled by coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday as a member of the 26-man squad for the Qatar showcase this month.
Rowles, 24, has been plying his trade for Scottish Premiership outfit Heart of Midlothian and has three appearances in the green and gold to his credit.
He is joined by Nathaniel Atkinson, Keanu Baccus, Thomas Deng, Cameron Devlin, Joel King, Riley McGree, Harry Souttar and Mitchell Duke as members of the Tokyo Olympics Olyroos squad of 2020.
“We have worked hard to give younger players an opportunity over the campaign, to expose them to international football, to test them against the best and I’m thrilled with the development and maturity of this group who now get a chance on the biggest stage possible,” Arnold said.
“It’s been a unique and difficult qualification campaign and we now arrive in Qatar with an exciting squad which will do everything to make Australia proud on the world stage.
“Over the past four years, 32 players have made their debut for the national team.
“I want to thank every player who has helped the team over this journey.
“We have called upon 68 players during the qualifying campaign and every one of them has played a part in getting us here.
“The make-up of our team reflects Australia’s multicultural landscape.
“Our boys come from all over the world, they all have different journeys, but we are united by one jersey.”
Rowles is one of 17 players selected in their first World Cup squad in the outfit to be captained by veteran goalkeeper Matthew Ryan.
Ryan will be joined by Mathew Leckie as the only current Australian players to be heading to the global sporting spectacle for a third time.