Aaron Mooy has done some travelling in his time and played against nations from all over the globe – but now he has a new opponent to conjure with.
Huddersfield Town’s influential loan midfielder from Manchester City will be in the Australia squad which faces Cameroon at the group stage of this year’s Confederations Cup in Russia.
The Indomitable Lions are the newly-crowned Africa Cup of Nations champions and have a FIFA World Ranking of 33 (the Socceroos are 54th and England 13th).
Cameroon and Caltex Socceroos have never met at senior level, but Cameroon do have fond memories of Australia, with the nation’s Under 23 team winning Olympic Gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney.
The Socceroos take on Cameroon in their second group match at the Confederations Cup in St Petersburg on June 23.
By then, of course, the 26-year-old Mooy will be looking forward to pre-season with Pep Guardiola’s City, hopefully having played his part in a massive success story for Town.
Mooy has scored twice in 31 appearances in blue and white stripes so far and has QPR in his sights this weekend.
He’ll know the Cameroon test will be a tough one.
They are managed by Hugo Broos, the 64-year-old Belgian who has done a superb job since taking charge just a year ago, turning the Indomitable Lions into a side that is hard to beat.
A rugged defender during his playing career – which included 24 caps for Belgium – Broos’ side is defensively very strong and organised.
They conceded just three times in six games during AFCON 2017, but managed to score only seven in total while carrying off the title with a 2-1 final victory over Egypt.
Mooy will next be in action for Australia next month.
They will play an away fixture against Iraq on March 23 before returning home to face the UAE in Sydney just five days later.
