By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-06-10 12:43:48 | Updated at 2026-06-12 20:53:14
2 days ago
Nestory Irankunda is equally capable of moments of magic or madness. He could be Australia’s bold World Cup gamble this summer, elevating himself to stardom.
Nestory Irankunda is far from a household name, unlike many of the stars lining up to take part at the FIFA World Cup this summer. But that might be about to change, with Australia‘s most exciting young player set to be Tony Popovic’s joker in the pack.
There’s little doubt Irankunda is one of the most talented players to come out of Australian football in recent decades, and this is the perfect stage to show off.
Irankunda is often a frustrating watch, though. At times, he could be best described as a ‘moments’ player; easy on the eye when watching a short highlights reel of sensational goals, shots, tricks and somersault celebrations, but he can lack consistency over 90 minutes.
He comes off the back of a mediocre season at club level with English Championship side Watford, but his international form over the last 12 months suggests he’s saved his best form for when he dons an Australia jersey.
The World Cup has transformed the careers of many young players in the past. Irankunda very much has the potential to be one of the next, but it depends on which version of the 20-year-old we get to see in North America.
Big Transfer Pressure
Watford’s signing of Irankunda from Bayern Munich on a five-year deal was lauded as one of the most exciting made in the Championship last summer.
That prediction looked spot on in the opening month of the 2025-26 season. A cameo appearance in the final 27 minutes in their first game away at Charlton really should have seen the referee award a penalty in his favour after he accelerated into the box and was upended by the goalkeeper.
A first start at home to QPR in the second game gave plenty of Watford fans something to be excited about, with Irankunda setting up one of their goals. But it was his third and fourth league appearances of the season that really showed his ability, scoring two sensational long-range free-kicks in back-to-back matches against Swansea and Southampton.
There is no doubt the opening month of Irankunda’s Watford career displayed flashes of his excellent ball-striking ability, as well as his lightning-quick pace. But there were massive gaps in between those moments.
After scoring against Southampton on 30 August, Irankunda went 27 appearances without a goal in all competitions for the Hornets before he scored in the defeat at Stoke City in mid-March, once again with a spectacular long-range effort. He would only score four goals in total across 42 appearances in 2025-26 for the Championship club.
There were extremely high hopes for him after he joined Bayern from Adelaide United in November 2023 for a fee that had the potential to break the A-League record after add-ons.
Still only a teenager, the Australian was said to have impressed Vincent Kompany in 2024-25, making the substitutes’ bench in a handful of first-team games before spending the second half of the campaign at Swiss top-flight side Grasshoppers.
Although his tally of one goal and three assists in 19 Swiss Super League appearances was modest, he displayed how dangerous he was with the ball at his feet. After his debut in January 2025, no player in the Grasshoppers side had more shots (12) or created more chances (6) following ball carries than Irankunda – both metrics in which he excelled in the A-League before attracting Bayern.
In his last season of Australian league football, Irankunda – who was only 17 for the majority of 2023-24 – averaged the most progressive carries per 90 (12.7) and carry progress (18.5m per carry), while he ranked in the top two for carries ending with either a shot or chance created per 90 (3).
Despite limited game time, Irankunda once again topped those rankings at Watford, totalling 39 shot involvements following a carry in the 2025-26 Championship, five more than any other player in the squad.
Questionable Decisions
As good as Irankunda clearly is, he’s a player who can be guilty of poor decision-making. Being so young, that’s to be expected at times, but nonetheless it can make him frustrating to watch.
Some of those bad decisions involve what to do with the ball after beating a player or finding space, but many also relate to getting himself into needless confrontations with opponents.
In his first season at Watford, he earned 13 cards in the Championship (12 yellows, one red); no one else earned more, despite the Australian playing just 49% of possible minutes in the league.
Fewer than half of those cards were for fouls (six), with the other seven given for reasons such as arguing with opponents, dissent to officials, simulation and time wasting. His red card against Swansea City was dished out after he pushed opponent Josh Cullen in the face late on in a 2-0 home defeat in January.
Granted, it would have been far from helpful for the young forward to have played under three different managers in that first season in England, but that’s become the norm at Vicarage Road so can hardly be considered a surprising turn of events.
In the penultimate match of Paulo Pezzolano’s nine-league-game reign following his appointment last summer, the Uruguayan boss hauled Irankunda off after just 35 minutes at Portsmouth, saying he “didn’t look fresh”. The youngster reacted furiously, punching a chair in the dugout and throwing a water bottle on the ground before storming down the tunnel.
Click Image to EnlargeJekyll & Hyde
There is clearly an edge to Irankunda’s game, something that can explode either way – a brilliant solo effort, run or dribble, but potentially followed by a moment of madness derived from frustration and inexperience. Like it or not, those Jekyll & Hyde traits make him such a fascinating player to watch. You never know what’ll happen when he’s on the pitch.
Irankunda is obviously a special talent, though, and there’s no better place to show that than on the biggest stage of all.
His form for Australia has been very different to that at club level, with the more ad-hoc nature of international football suiting the 20-year-old’s explosive traits. That could lend itself to him making a name for himself in this tournament – a player who can produce moments of brilliance out of nothing.
Since joining Watford, Irankunda is one of only four players to have appeared in every one of Popovic’s Australia sides in their 10 friendlies building up to this World Cup, alongside Aiden O’Neill, Connor Metcalfe and Cameron Burgess. No player has scored as many goals as him for the national side in that period (4).
He’s only started four of those games, suggesting Popovic sees him more as a super-sub who can enter games and make things happen when the Socceroos need to change something. His two most recent goals for Australia in the win over Curaçao in March saw him enter the pitch with 23 minutes left and score twice.
Australia drew their last World Cup warm-up game 1-1 with Switzerland on Saturday, with Irankunda once again the centre of attention for his country. Their standout player, he won the official Player of the Match vote for the Socceroos, and came close to scoring with a trademark outside-the-box strike that was tipped onto the crossbar.
But it was another performance that also showed his immaturity in dealing with certain situations. He was involved in a heated scuffle with the notoriously hot-headed Granit Xhaka in the second half, petulantly kicking the ball into Xhaka’s groin while the Swiss midfielder was lying down injured. It was the sort of behaviour that could cost his team during the World Cup, with Irankunda rightfully earning a caution before being substituted just three minutes later.
Nonetheless, it was a display that would have put Irankunda at the front of Popovic’s mind ahead of their World Cup opener with Türkiye on the opening weekend of the tournament. Does the Australian manager gamble with the explosive 20-year-old from the start, or does he wait to see if his impact is needed from the bench when Turkish defenders’ legs might be more tired?
The World Cup can elevate players to superstardom. Irankunda is undoubtedly good enough to be among the next collection of those stars; it just remains to be seen if he can channel his attributes positively or not for Australia over the next month to enable his ascent.
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