Illawarra duo Joel King and Kye Rowles named in Socceroos World Cup squad

Both were touch and go for selection, with King doing all that he could despite not playing many minutes for his club in Denmark and Rowles under an injury cloud following a broken foot he suffered playing for his club Hearts in August.

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King and Rowles will get the opportunity to replicate the heroics of many former Socceroos greats that hailed from the Illawarra such as Scott Chipperfield, Mile Sterjovski and Luke Wilkshire - all of whom have represented Australia at a World Cup.

King gained his first Socceroos appearance against Vietnam in World Cup qualifying and played his part in the side's recent friendly win over New Zealand at Eden Park in September.

He will be up against long-time Socceroos left-back Aziz Behich for a starting spot come the side's first game against defending champions France.

Rowles was crucial to the Socceroos qualifying for the World Cup, with the former Mariners defender in the A-League playing a massive part in the side's penalty shoot-out win against Peru to get them to Qatar.

Speaking on King and Rowles - along with seven other squad members who were in the Tokyo 2020 squad that have been picked for the Cup - Arnold said it was the long-term plan to prepare the youngsters.

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"We have worked hard to give younger players an opportunity over the campaign, to expose them to international football, to test them against the best and I'm thrilled with the development and maturity of this group who now get a chance on the biggest stage possible," Arnold said.

In the squad's biggest omission, goalkeeper Mitch Langerak - who only recently came back out of international retirement to play at the World Cup - missed out on a ticket to Qatar all-together.

Long-time number one goalkeeper and Socceroos captain Mathew Ryan, along with Danny Vukovic and Andrew Redmayne were preferred to Langarak, who has been in stellar club form in Japan for a number of years.

The Socceroos will take on defending champions France first up on November 23 (6am AEDT), then face Tunisia on November 26 (9pm AEDT) and finish off the group stages against Denmark on December 1 (2am AEDT).

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The Mercury, in partnership with the Illawarra Academy Of Sport and presenting sponsor Illawarra Credit Union, is hosting the Illawarra Sports Awards, to be held on Thursday, November 10 at the Fraternity Club.