Mathew Leckie #7

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Leckie made the 23-man squad for the Russia World Cup in 2018, but it was at the tournament in Qatar four years later when he cemented himself as a Socceroos cult hero. The versatile winger provided one of Australian football’s all-time moments when he jinked inside Danish defender Joakim Mæhle, then back outside, before firing low past the despairing dive of Kasper Schmeichel to score the only goal of the game and send the Socceroos into the Last 16 - and fans assembled in the early hours back at home into raptures. Now 35, this will be Leckie’s fourth World Cup. At his first in 2014 his explosive acceleration and direct running made him one of Australia’s standout players and attracted interest from scouts from several big clubs, although he has always maintained he had no regrets over signing for German second division club FC Ingolstadt just a month earlier.

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