Jason Cummings and Aaron Mooy IN Australia World Cup squad alongside other SPFL stars but ex-Celtic ace Tom Rogic OUT
NO fewer than SEVEN Scottish Premiership stars have made Australia's final squad for the Qatar World Cup.
The competition kicks off in 12 days time and the nations lucky enough to have qualified have been finalising the pool of players they will take with them to the Middle East.
Australia's Asian Football Confederation rivals Japan confirmed their squad last week but they named just one of a possible four star players from Celtic, with Daizen Maeda being selected and Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi left out.
Countries like Croatia and the USA could also have multiple players representing the Premiership.
In terms of the Aussies, Aaron Mooy of Celtic and Martin Boyle of Hibs are the most high-profile Scottish-based players to make the cut.
While former Celtic hero Tom Rogic, currently at West Brom, won't add to his 53 caps as he's been omitted.
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Nathan Atkinson, Cameron Devlin and Kye Rowles of Hearts, St Mirren's Keanu Baccus and Aziz Behich of Dundee United have all been called up by boss Graham Arnold.
Ex-Hibs, Dundee and Rangers striker Jason Cumming, who only recently switched his international allegiance to Australia from Scotland after a red-hot start to life Down Under with Central Coast Mariners, HAS been selected, following a goal on his debut for his new country in September.
Other former SPFL stars including Jackson Irvine, Jamie MacLaren and Harry Souttar are also on the final roster.
A statement on the Socceroos website read: "Socceroos’ Head Coach Graham Arnold has named his 26-man squad to represent Australia at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.
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"Goalkeeper Mathew Ryan will captain the side in Qatar at what will be his third FIFA World Cup, with Mathew Leckie the other player in the squad selected to represent Australia at a FIFA World Cup for the third time.
"This year’s tournament will be the second FIFA World Cup for Aziz Behich, Milos Degenek, Jackson Irvine, Jamie MacLaren, Aaron Mooy and Bailey Wright, with seventeen players selected in a FIFA World Cup squad for the first time."
Australia boss Arnold thanks each of the 68 players he called up during the last four-year cycle in the build-up to this World Cup.
He 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."
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