Graham Arnold has rewarded the standouts of the recently completed A-League season with selection in the Socceroos squad to face South Korea in a friendly next month.
Eleven of the 24-man squad are currently plying their trade in the Australian domestic competition.
Among those is Sutherland Sharks product, Chris Ikonomidis who will be looking to add to his 12 caps for the green and gold after a breakout season for Perth Glory.
A soaring injury rate in the past 12 months that stemmed from an unprecedented work and travel load for the Socceroos has prompted Arnold to select six uncapped players.
Among those are Andrew Redmayne and Brandon O'Neill whose grand final heroics with Sydney FC have not gone unrewarded.
Other new faces in the squad include Harry Souttar (Stoke City FC), Lawrence Thomas (Melbourne Victory), Ryan Williams (Rotherham United) and Brandon Borrello (SC Freiberg).
Joining fellow Sky Blues teammates Redmayne and Brandon O'Neill in Korea will be Rhyan Grant and Joshua Brillante.
Also returning to the national fold is Seattle Sounders loanee, Brad Smith who has starred playing regular football this season in his move to North America.
With FIFA announcing this morning that the Qatar 2022 World Cup will remain at the status quo of 32 countries participating, Arnold appreciated that preparations to qualify for the event has already arrived.
"Our World Cup qualification campaign preparations start now. The upcoming camp and friendly international in Korea Republic provides us the opportunity to expose more players to international football, which is vital as we prepare for a long qualification campaign," Arnold said.
Australia will discover its opponents for the first phase of World Cup qualifiers in July, and will play FIFA World Cup preliminary fixtures on the road to Qatar at home and abroad in September, October, and November 2019.
The Socceroos international friendly against Korea Republic will be played on Friday, June 7 in Busan at 9pm AEST.
The squad to take on the Korea Republic:
- Mustafa Amini (Aarhus Gymnastikforening),
- Terry Antonis (Melbourne Victory),
- Aziz Behich (PSV Eindhoven),
- Brandon Borrello (SC Freiburg),
- Joshua Brillante (Sydney FC),
- Thomas Deng (Melbourne Victory),
- Craig Goodwin (Adelaide United),
- Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC),
- Chris Ikonomidis (Perth Glory),
- James Jeggo (Austria Wien),
- Matt Jurman (Al-Ittihad),
- Mitch Langerak (Nagoya Grampus),
- Awer Mabil (FC Midtjylland),
- Brandon O'Neill (Sydney FC),
- Dimitri Petratos (Newcastle Jets),
- Andrew Redmayne (Sydney FC),
- Brad Smith (Seattle Sounders),
- Harry Souttar (Stoke City FC),
- Matthew Spiranovic (Perth Glory),
- Adam Taggart (Suwon Bluewings),
- Lawrence Thomas (Melbourne Victory),
- Rhys Williams (Al-Qadsiah FC),
- Ryan Williams (Rotherham United),
- Bailey Wright (Bristol City).
