‘It's an incredible honour’: Elder reacts to maiden Socceroos call-up
Despite having an Irish mum, a Scottish dad and living in England since the age of 16, Callum Elder was always destined to wear the Green and Gold.
The Hull City fullback, who left his home in Sydney’s north as a teenager, was made to wait for his maiden Socceroos call-up.
But his decision to leave his homeland as a youngster is about to pay off. Elder arrived in the Socceroos’ camp in Qatar on Monday ahead of World Cup qualifiers against China in Doha on Friday (AEST) and Vietnam in Hanoi next week.
The former Manly United junior is in contention to make his Socceroos debut against China, and he is ready to seize the opportunity offered by his first senior international call-up at 26 years of age.
“I'm absolutely delighted, it feels like a long time coming,” Elder explained.
It's an incredible honour for me and my family.
“When I moved to England as a 16-year-old, it was always something that I wanted to tick off. A lot of hard work and sacrifice has been put into getting here.
“It's kind of overwhelming really because so much hard work has been put in. I’ve been grinding through performances and seasons with knockbacks and injuries, so these are moments where you sort of pinch yourself.
“It's such valuable recognition and I'm so pleased to be here. I know there's a lot of hard work to come and I'm looking forward to working with the gaffer and this group of lads.”
Having only previously represented the Young Socceroos once back in 2013, Elder has been forced to watch the Green and Gold from afar.
While he was eligible to represent Australia, England or Scotland, there was only one decision Elder was ever going to make.
“I got a small sniff of it early on in my career when I represented the Young Socceroos and that was such a great honour,” Elder said.
“Moving forward, it was always the next step into the national team and at times, you have to be patient and make sure that your performances are right at a club level.
I’ve loved my time growing up as a fan and hopefully I can repay that now as a player.
It's the biggest honour as a footballer to be able to represent your country and I'm really looking forward if given the chance to do that.”
After learning his trade with Manly United as a junior, Elder joined Leicester City where he progressed through their youth ranks before various loan moves took him across the country.
While he never made a senior appearance for Leicester, Elder gained experience through loan stints throughout the leagues before finally finding his feet with Hull in the Championship.
Despite a whirlwind journey, which saw him loaned to six different clubs in five years, the left-back would not change anything.
“I'm coming up to 10 years now in England because I signed for Leicester just before my 17th birthday, but I've loved my time over in England.
“It’s such a passionate country for football. I've loved spending time there. It's obviously been difficult being so far away from home, but you do learn to deal with that as you grow older and stronger.
It’s always been a personal goal of mine to play for the Socceroos to be involved in the national team setup.
"I just knew I needed to be patient and continue working hard on the training pitch.”
Since joining Hull, where he was initially a teammate of Socceroo Jackson Irvine, Elder has established himself as a regular.
He starred for the Tigers last season by contributing 10 assists and one goal from left-back as Hull strolled to promotion from League One to the Championship.
Not even the injury at the back of the season which forced him out of the Socceroos June qualifiers could stop him from being named in League One's team of the season.
After playing all but one match so far in the Championship, Elder knows what he will bring to Arnold’s side.
“I’m naturally a left-back. I’m hoping moving forward that the way I play is what the manager wants,” Elder said.
“I'd like to consider myself as an athletic player who likes to get up and down the field.
“It’s exciting to start working with the manager and to see what he wants from his players.
“I'll be looking forward to hopefully being involved in that first game against China.
“We've got some really big games coming up that we are looking forward to really putting our best foot forward and dominating these games.”
The Socceroos face China PR on Friday, 3 September, with kick-off at 4am (AEST). Australia's second World Cup qualifier against Vietnam in Hanoi will be played on Tuesday, 7 September.
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ – AFC Asian Qualifiers – Road to Qatar (Final Round)
Australia v China PR
Date: Thursday, 2 September 2021
Venue: Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, Qatar
Kick-off: 9pm local (4am AEST – Friday, 3 September 2021)
Broadcast: Live and free in Australia on Network 10 – pre-game coverage from 3.30am AEST
