Melbourne Victory head coach Arthur Diles believes the Subway Young Socceroos are benefiting from more exposure in the Isuzu UTE A-League as he hailed Australia’s Under-20 side for “putting us back the map”.
Led by a core of A-Leagues talents, with 17 in the squad and six in the starting XI that went head-to-head with Japan in the semi-finals – with another three coming off the bench, the Young Socceroos have also reached the FIFA U20 World Cup for the first time in 12 years.
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This Young Socceroos squad have tallied more than 12,200 professional match minutes in over 250 games across senior level heading into the 2025 tournament.
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It further highlights opportunities given by A-Leagues clubs, and the proof is in the numbers.
The Isuzu UTE A-League ranks second globally behind only the Serbian SuperLiga for percentage of match minutes given to players born in or after 2004, according to CIES Football Observatory based on current or last completed seasons in top 50 divisions worldwide.
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Asked about the Young Socceroos and the importance of U20 development ahead of Saturday’s trip to Brisbane Roar, Diles told reporters: “I think now at that age, there’s more exposure to those players in the A-League. So they’re getting a lot more minutes in senior football.
“Whereas U17, those players are still playing in youth competitions or in NPL competitions. So there’s a bit of a gap in terms of the quality of the competitions that they play in.
“I think more so in the last couple years, there’s been a lot more exposure of young players getting minutes in the A-League, and that’s really important for the development of football clubs in the A-League, but also the development of our young national teams.
“I think now you can see that’s progressing nicely. This current group of Young Socceroos is a very talented group of players and imagine they’re missing still probably five, six players that couldn’t be there that would make them even stronger than to where they are. That’s really good for Australian football.
“Trevor’s done a great job with that group of players. I think those players are leading the way at the moment and putting us back on the map.
“They’re going to play in the final in the coming days, and hopefully they get something out of that, irrespective they’re going to a World Cup, which is fantastic.
“We want more players from Melbourne Victory in those teams as well, from under 17, under 20s and under 23 so it’s our job as a club to keep developing players for those teams, and ultimately for our first team.”
