Football is the most played sport in Australia and is incredibly popular. But when most kids think of football, they think of Messi, Ronaldo, Bellingham, Haaland and Mbappe. With the surging popularity of the Matildas, there’s an amazing story to be told to the next generation of football fans, a roller coaster ride that has taken place right here in our own backyard. This is not a story of fantasy, played out in your imagination or on a PlayStation game. This is a story lived by people just like us – Aussie boys and girls, short and tall, from all corners of the country – who took their dreams and made them real. With such interest in football, it is the perfect moment to pay respect to our own local story, and to imbue Australian fans with respect and admiration for our own heroes, not just the global mythical figures. This book aims to tell the story of our current stars, and the legends who went before them, to create a passionate understanding and love for the green and gold in our next generation of football fans. This work, aimed at an upper primary to a teenage audience, is the first time the story of the Australian national teams has been told through the combined framework of the Matildas and the Socceroos, distilled in a language a young audience will understand. With the clear link between Cortnee Vine and John Aloisi’s penalties providing the framework, this book takes young fans on a journey through the highs and lows, life lessons and great characters that come with following Australian football, through a structure of alternating World Cups, from 2006 through to 2023. Symbolically, it tells our story of football on the world stage; not a story of men’s football or women’s football, but football, the sport that provides the greatest window to the world through sport, and the best depiction of our country to the world.
