BERKELEY, California -- It's a sunny afternoon by the Bay, and, with just a week to go until the FIFA World Cup begins, the media session the Socceroos have been staging is starting to wind down. For the past hour, members of Tony Popovic's squad have been summoned to a large hall at their hotel in the hills of Berkeley to speak with the media in 15-minute blocks; some over the phone, some on camera, and some in old-fashioned sit-down interviews. It's that quadrennial moment when the Australian mainstream starts to properly focus on the team, so there are plenty of conversations occurring.
Mohamed Touré, 22, is one of the team's most in-demand players, moving from station to station long after every other player's obligations have since ended. As he's summoned for one final chat, obviously wanting to escape for a sauna session but accepting the demands that come with being at a World Cup, two of his teammates let out pantomimed groans.
"I'll be quick, I'll be quick," Touré grins as he moves to sit down. His two companions, fellow World Cup debutants Tete Yengi and Nestory Irankunda, look at him with faux exasperation before settling in; flitting between looking at their phones, playing with a Trionda left over from a photo shoot, and, in the historic tradition, doing their best to distract their mate while he's trying to concentrate. Yengi interjects at one point to jokingly tell his fellow attacker to "stop lying."
The trio have known each other for years, growing up together in Adelaide. Touré and Irankunda, who arrived in South Australia as refugees from Conakry, Guinea, and Kigoma, Tanzania, respectively, first met while playing school sports -- the former winning over the latter -- and started a friendship that continued through park football, their first pro team, Adelaide United, and beyond. Yengi never played for the Reds, his journey to the World Cup was a somewhat more eclectic one, and the five-year age gap between him and 20-year-old Irankunda means this tournament is the first time they've been teammates. But he has known Touré since "I was like, 12, and he was eight, so we've grown up together."
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"That's the best part about it, to be able to be here with guys that I've known from when I was younger," Irankunda tells ESPN. "We've come up together, and we've known each other for a very long time, and our friendship is very, very close.
"Just to be here with them, and potentially share the pitch with them at a World Cup, it's just amazing. It's amazing stuff, and I'm very happy and excited."
On and off the field, the face of the Socceroos is changing. Australia will send one of its youngest-ever sides to the World Cup in 2026, with 17-players appearing at the tournament for the first time and eight members of the 26-player squad aged 23-years or younger. There's genuine excitement about what the youthful contingent of this squad could accomplish together in the years ahead, but Popovic insists that they'll be given the chance to contribute right now, too. And several are expected to either be amongst the starters, or utilised off the bench, when Australia opens its campaign against Türkiye in Vancouver on June 13.
Touré and Irankunda sit at the vanguard of this new generation and, invariably, this means they've generated significant interest not just in the relatively small footballing community Down Under but also its broader mainstream. This attention has seen both former Socceroos coach Graham Arnold and Popovic repeatedly intervene to limit access to the two, seeking to stem the deluge of focus and its associated pressure and expectations.
"Sometimes I just try to avoid it as much as I can, because I'm not a huge fan; I'm not a huge fan of the interviews and stuff," Irankunda says. "Especially at this time, this time of the season. Obviously, the [domestic] season ended, and now it's World Cup time; I want to be fully focused, fully locked in to go do something right here."
Popovic has consistently taken an interest in guiding the pair off the field since taking over the Socceroos in 2024, too. He's provided guidance to Touré as he learns the ins and outs of being a professional, as well as pushing him to embrace the grind of week-in-and-week-out European football and banish the soft-tissue injuries that have proven all too common in his young career. After his explosion onto the scene with Adelaide United earned him a move to Bayern Munich, Popovic challenged now-Watford attacker Irankunda to persevere with the ups and downs associated with going from being the golden boy of Australian football to just another highly talented prospect in the meat-grinder of European football, as well as work on the more unsung aspects of his game such as defensive work-rate, and getting off more shots inside the box.
"They're doing well," Popovic tells ESPN. "We just want them to enjoy this process, train at their maximum and look to improve and get better every single day. And off the field, to have the balance to do the things I like doing off the field, whether they're together or by themselves, and not feel that burden, but just feel the excitement.
"This is the World Cup. This is the biggest stage, and I'm confident these young boys will be fine."
Nonetheless, there are limits to what the coach can do when it comes to shielding and shepherding their players. Alongside Jordan Bos and Ajdin Hrustić, the pair were two of the faces of the launch of the Socceroos' kits for the World Cup, the face of a campaign built around the underdog Australians being on a "Mission to Wreck" the best laid plans of their opponents at the coming tournament. If they're not already, the duo are on the verge of becoming the new faces of the Socceroos -- even if that's a label that Irankunda believes firmly belongs with the likes of veterans Mathew Ryan, Mathew Leckie or the "Star Boy" Bos.
"Jordy Bos, I always bully him," Irankunda laughs. "I call him the Star Boy, because in my opinion, I see him as the best player in the team."
Unfortunately for Irankunda -- who has always been the more reserved of the duo when doing media -- while Bos looks like he's going to come in for plenty of attention in his own right in the years ahead, as long as he and Touré continue to kick goals in their careers, both literally and figuratively, that attention is inevitable. At least, that's the sanguine view that Touré has adopted.
"Me personally, not me, really," he says. "I just feel like if people want to talk about you and people want to advertise you, feel like you're doing something good. So [the feeling is] more like pride, for me, that I feel like I'm doing something good, I'm doing something positive, more than pressure."
What quickly becomes apparent in conversation with the pair is that, even if media might not be their favourite thing the world, the forces of both Irankunda and Touré's personalities can't help but bubble through even when they're on the record; Touré vividly demonstrating the anguish he would have felt if he'd failed to score the third goal of his hat trick against Oxford United soon after moving to Norwich City. Things become even more irrepressible when they're able to escape the camera -- as demonstrated by the attempts to distract Touré -- and especially when they're on the pitch.
Irankunda, in particular, has always possessed something of a hot head; clashing with opponents -- he received a yellow card in the Socceroos' 1-1 draw with Switzerland for ... ahem ... passing the ball into Granit Xhaka's crotch after the Swiss veteran had been fouled -- and sometimes unable to hide his disdain when he was substituted off. It's an impassioned personality that has at times threatened to hamper his meteoric rise, as well as something his coaches, be it Airton Andrioli and Carl Veart at Adelaide, or Arnold, Popovic, or under-17 coach Brad Maloney in the national team setup, have worked long and hard with him on. What's been important, though, is that while they've worked to curtail some of his more detrimental habits, they've not attempted to do so by suppressing his personality. Instead, they want him to harness it.
"We've seen them mature and grow over the journey so far," says Popovic. "We brought in Mo in June [of 2025] in the two biggest games ... he came on against Saudi Arabia, and since then he's actually worked his way into the squad as a young player. We've seen the results of that, going to Norwich, where his game can improve further. This is another step.
"And Nestor, we've seen go through the ups and downs, and there are many more of those to come. They're young boys with talent, and they are learning about the game and professionally, what it takes on and off the field.
"If they want to achieve the goals that they have set out or their dreams that come true, they need to be elite in every area, but they also must remember that it's their personalities and the people that they are and the way they've grown up and their family environment that have made them and got them to this point. That needs to remain."
While Popovic has developed something of an austere reputation, and he hasn't been afraid to lay down the law and challenge them when needed, the care that he has for both Touré and Irankunda is very obvious whenever you watch him. When the latter's emotions threatened to bubble over by the touchline during a friendly against Canada, for instance, the coach was quick to grab him in a bear hug as he substituted him off. He also wasn't dissuaded from performing a Michael Jackson-inspired celebration after netting against Curaçao in Australia's send-off friendlies in March -- going viral across the globe as he donned a white, bedazzled glove and gyrated in an ode to the King of Pop.
"I guess it's just natural," Irankunda grins. "You can ask any other voice of the team, is Nestor ever different? I'm the same every day ... unless someone fully pisses me off, but besides that, I'm always happy. No matter what happens, I try to keep a smile on my face, have a laugh with the boys, joke around, and I feel like that's just my personality.
"I don't think that'll ever change, and I hope it never changes, because I feel like some people love it. I feel like some people mistake it for me being cocky, but at the end of the day, I'm just trying to have some fun.
"Maybe when I get a bit older, you know, the age of 25 or something like that, once I'm married with kids or whatever, then I have to mature up a little bit. But at the moment I'm still young, and just trying to enjoy it as much as I can."
Helping Irankunda enjoy it are the presence of his two mates from his hometown. Touré is one of six siblings -- one of whom, Al Hassan, is also an Australian international -- but also describes Irankunda, himself one of seven siblings, as his "little brother." Yengi's older brother Kusini has also played for Australia, but he, too, describes Touré as a "brother." Sharing the room with the trio earlier that afternoon was Awer Mabil, who is now off to his second World Cup and who also came out of South Australia; Yengi described the winger as an "idol."
Adelaide has always been a hotbed of African-heritage talent in Australia. Its African Nations Cup of South Australia (AFCON SA) tournament, in which teams are formed representing various African countries and professional players, past, present, and future can often be found, is one of the longest-running and most successful of the various state-based tournaments run across the country.
"It's a great community event," Yengi smiles. "I think the whole city kind of comes together, the whole African community comes together. It's great to watch and to play in, it's kind of like a mini-World Cup in Adelaide. It's amazing, there's so much talent there; hopefully we can see a few more youngsters coming through the ranks."
Not possessing the same ability to pay established players as their New South Wales or Victorian counterparts, semiprofessional South Australian NPL clubs are often also more willing to invest in developing local youth and giving them opportunities at the senior level, with Touré playing for the Croydon Kings, Irankunda for Adelaide Croatia, and Yengi for the Croydon Kings and Adelaide Comets before going professional. Adelaide United, meanwhile, has embraced a locally focused, youth-development model that provides talented local players with a professional pathway, giving Touré and Irankunda their professional debuts at just 15 and playing them enough that, even when they left at 18, they did so with 42 and 60 appearances.
"We just try to represent the community back home, because if it wasn't for some of them, then we wouldn't be here," Irankunda says. "They've given us so much, and they've given us so much love and respect, so we have to try to give back by performing for them.
"It's just us African boys showcasing ourselves, showing that we've got the talent, and that anything's possible -- especially for the younger African kids that look up to us and want to be like us. Like, it's possible, give them the hope that anything's possible."
Together, the community that has fostered their talent has helped contribute to the South Australian-raised, African-heritage contingent in the Socceroos doubling from the 2022 World Cup; going from Thomas Deng and Mabil in 2022 to Mabil, Irankunda, Touré, and Yengi in 2026 (Jason Geria, from Canberra, and Lucas Herrington, from Queensland, also have African heritage). And while there's immense happiness to be representing Australia amongst this contingent, often speaking about what the country has given them in their journeys, there's also a powerful sense of pride amongst them to be representing a community that has been drawn from all across Africa but has come together to support one another in their new home. In a 2023 interview with Optus Sport, for instance, Touré's mother, Amara, recalled weekends when kids from every background would filter from the pitch across the road from the family home in Croydon, make themselves toast and butter, and then return to their games -- occasionally, she said, going through up to 11 bags of bread.
"It's encouraging for them," Touré says. "It gives them belief, hopefully they can see now that it's not impossible, and if they put in the work, they can make it, and they can do it.
"[There's pride in representing] the ones that, when I was younger, they took care of me, or they believed in me, or they took me to a football game, even my coaches and stuff, who helped my family and me with football. I just feel like I'm giving back to them, and I hope they can turn on the TV if they're at work and tell one of their workmates that I know that kid and I coach that kid, just to have that proud moment. That's what I play for."
On an even smaller scale, however, is something that often gets overlooked when telling the story of these new faces of the Socceroos. While the mainstream often seeks to impose its own narrative framing on Irankunda and Touré, especially, they, alongside their mate Yengi, have grown up together and are now here on the world stage. Theirs is a tale of many things, but on the ground in California, what's particularly striking, as they prepare for the biggest moment of their professional lives, is that it's one of mates being each other's biggest fans and supporters, as they persevere through the grind of football to excel on the world stage.
Their success is one of a community, but it's also an intensely personal one, a triumph of friendship and the power of the group chat -- all three part of a collective conversation that also includes the likes of Touré's brothers Al Hassan and Musa, as well as fellow Aussies abroad such as Garang Kuol, Raphael Borges Rodrigues, Rhys Youlley, Ariath Piol, and Hosine Bility.
"It's amazing," Touré adds. "At the start of this season, everybody's goal was to have a good season and go to the World Cup. And if you were to tell me I would have two familiar faces in the squad as well with me, that would have been ... I wouldn't believe it, you know. Now, I'm just here, I'm with both of them. It's so surreal, and it's amazing.
"I feel like that's a lesson I learned; you can talk things into existence. I feel like we all in that group chat would say, 'Guys, it'd be cool if we could all go to the World Cup,' and not one of us ever said, 'Nah, it's impossible. What's the chance we're all going to be there?'
"You know what I mean? We all said, 'Yeah, bro, we have to just keep grinding at our clubs, and we can all be there one day.' And, you see now, it's a reality."
One of the biggest bolters in the squad, Yengi was one of two players, the other Cristian Volpato, who were picked for North America before making their senior international debut; riding a strong loan spell at J1 League outfit Machida Zelvia into the final 26 and then scoring on debut in a pre-World Cup friendly against Switzerland. And the group chat was quick to respond.
"They were all watching back home; they were happy for me," Yengi says. "They sent our messages in the group chat as well. We try to support each other.
"It's amazing, me and Nestor got the opportunity to play together [against Switzerland], hopefully one game, it can be all three of us together. It's great. We all come from a similar background, from the same city back home. We've been friends from being so young, so it's just amazing to be now sharing the biggest stage with them."
Touré and Irankunda are somewhat more established; they've become regular members of Popovic's squads since automatic qualification was secured last June, with the 12 months since giving the coach a chance to experiment and integrate players without the spectre of existential qualifiers hanging over him.
With 10 international caps under his belt, as well as a sensational end to the season with Norwich in which he had 13 goal contributions in just 12 games after signing in the January transfer window, Touré is anticipated to lead the Socceroos' line in the weeks ahead. Irankunda, capped 15 times, meanwhile, will most likely start on one of the wings or serve as an off-the-bench weapon against tired legs, possibly as a No. 9, too, following a season with Watford in which there were ups, downs and challenges, but in which he nevertheless comfortably logged the most minutes of his career.
They're only in the furtive stages of their careers, but already, they're viewed as key cogs in the Socceroos' World Cup ambitions. And while they're quick to downplay their own talents or ambitions when pressed on what they're going to accomplish, there's no hesitation, not much restraint, and real enthusiasm when they detail what they expect from their mates.
"Mo's going to do Mo Toure things," Irankunda laughs. "And people don't really know Tete like that, but he's a top player, a top player. And he's a dangerous, dangerous player. So they're going to be scoring goals, hopefully, and we need them to score goals. And if they don't, I'll kill them!
"The sky is the limit, the sky's the limit for [Touré]. The sky's the limit for Lucas [Herrington], Bossy [Bos], all the young boys, the sky's the limit. And Mo can be such a great player, fast, strong -- stupid sometimes -- but just a top player. He can become whatever he wants to become. If he wants to reach the top, he's gonna have to do whatever it takes to reach that, so it's up to him."
Touré, for his part, says he's going to do whatever he can to help the team, almost sheepishly so. But he's very confident when he's asked what his mates, looking over at him, waiting for him to finish his interview, are going to do.
"Tete is going to come on, or start, and he's gonna score a goal and do a viral celebration," he smiles. "[Irankunda] doesn't listen. When he scores, he just runs off and does a backflip. Wait, he might do a Michael Jackson celebration again, because he's in America."
