The highway from Dundee to the College of St Andrews is all the pieces you’d anticipate from a drive down the south-east coast of Scotland.
After a mild crawl out of town and throughout the Tay River bridge, the A92 curves barely inland earlier than spilling out onto a large horizon of rolling inexperienced farmland.
The freeway passes by villages with names like Drumoig, Pickletillum, and Kincaple; some no quite a lot of cottages vast, ringed by historic bushes or low fences of stormy-grey stone.
Outdated wood posts separate one crop of lush vegetation from one other, bobbing like buoys up and over the distant hills. Should you flip your head at simply the suitable second, past the farmhouses and orchards and clumps of firs, you may catch a glimpse of the flat North Sea. Each couple of kilometres, on both aspect of the highway, there’s a golf course.
A view of Dundee and the River Tay, wanting south.(Getty Pictures: Steven Robinson Footage)
It isn’t removed from Dundee to St Andrews — about half an hour by automobile — however Aziz Behich is taking his time. He nonetheless cannot fairly consider he is right here in any respect.
“Us footballers, our lives are 100 miles an hour at occasions,” he tells me on the way in which to the college the place his membership, Dundee United, trains.
“The opposite day, I used to be sitting right here considering, ‘I left Australia 10 years in the past.’ Now I am in Scotland. Time simply flies as a result of we’re coaching on daily basis; you are simply focusing day-by-day to be sure you’re bettering and staying on high of your recreation.
“However as I’ve gotten older, it is beginning to really feel just a little completely different. With the World Cup arising, I form of know what to anticipate now, so I am actually desirous to attempt to respect it as a lot as I can.”
Dundee appears like a distinct planet in comparison with the north Melbourne suburbs of Essendon and Broadmeadows the place Behich grew up.
Behich’s dad, Yasar, was a Turkish-Cypriot migrant who arrived right here within the Nineteen Seventies after fleeing a coup in North Cyprus. His mum, Cemaliye, adopted a number of years later, and collectively that they had 5 youngsters, of which Aziz is the second-youngest and solely son.
Rising up, Aziz Behich performed soccer in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.(Provided: Aziz Behich)
His dad and mom have been, in Behich’s phrases, “a typical migrant story”. Yasar labored a number of factory-floor and cleansing jobs to pay the mortgage and put meals on the desk, whereas Cemaliye took care of the children and tried to keep up order of their too-small home.
“Our dad and mom did a tremendous job,” he mentioned.
“It was in all probability tough for them, however we by no means noticed that a part of it. They hid it from us. They did no matter they might to ensure we had the very best life potential.”
It was by his dad that Aziz’s love of soccer began.
Yasar was a well-known participant again in North Cyprus; so well-known that his picture was printed on the within of a chewing-gum wrapper.
Behich recollects images his mom had taken of him sitting on the boot of their outdated automobile or draped over a fence watching his dad run round on Melbourne’s group fields, a secret famous person from half a world away.
Yasar Behich, father of Aziz, was a well known footballer in North Cyprus within the Nineteen Seventies.(Provided: Aziz Behich)
Whereas most children his age grew up watching the Premier League on tv, Aziz and his dad would as an alternative observe the Turkish Süper Lig, memorising the gamers and stats and titles of golf equipment like Beşiktas, Fenerbahçe, and Galatasaray.
These youth planted the seed of Behich’s footballing desires. However they have been virtually flattened earlier than they’d had an opportunity to develop.
After shining for Inexperienced Gully SC in Victoria’s state league, he was signed by Melbourne Victory’s youth group in 2009, and even wore the captain’s armband the next season.
He was usually invited to coach with the A-League group alongside gamers like Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson, and Ricardinho, and made a handful of senior appearances for the membership.
However regardless of all this involvement, Victory by no means provided him a senior contract.
“That was laborious for me to take,” he mentioned.
“No A-League membership wished to offer me an opportunity, so I form of needed to take a backwards step.
“One a part of me was saying, ‘this may very well be it. Perhaps it is simply not my time.’ So I went again to Hume Metropolis, which was my native group in Meadow Heights, bought a part-time job at a manufacturing facility after which went to coaching within the night. I believed I would just keep there without end.
“However fortunate sufficient, Melbourne Coronary heart bought shaped that season. They provided me every week or two trial out in Ballarat, so I would journey up each morning only for coaching classes, and finally they provided me a six-week contract. I had time to show myself then, ended up doing properly, and stayed there for a number of extra years. The remaining is historical past.”
Historical past is essentially the most becoming phrase for what occurred subsequent.
Following break-out performances with Melbourne Coronary heart within the A-League, the place he transitioned from a winger into the full-back place he now performs for the Socceroos, he started to draw curiosity from the Netherlands and Germany.
However there was one league that all the time known as to him. The league he spent numerous, valuable hours obsessive about in his childhood.
Behich grew up watching Turkey’s Süper Lig along with his dad. He would find yourself enjoying there for near a decade.(Getty Pictures: Anadolu Company/Berk Ozkan)
“After I bought the provide from Bursaspor in Turkey, it was a no brainer for me,” he mentioned.
“Two years earlier than I would gone there, they’d gained the league. They’d simply performed within the Champions League. They have been probably the greatest golf equipment on the earth.
“I grew up watching that league. I knew all the pieces about that league. I wished a lot to expertise that, however I by no means thought a membership of Bursaspor’s dimension could be all in favour of a child from Meadow Heights.
“I would solely simply performed by first recreation for the Socceroos on the time, too, so I used to be on a excessive. Every part felt prefer it was falling into place.”
In 2013, Behich grew to become the primary Australian to signal for the storied membership and, at the moment, simply the fifteenth to play within the league. He would not realise it till later, nevertheless it felt like a form of homecoming.
Behich’s (proper) time with Bursaspor taught him rather a lot about soccer, and rather a lot about himself.(Getty Pictures: Anadolu Company/Saban Kilicci)
His first season was a whirlwind: he had by no means been to Turkey earlier than, with his solely data of the nation filtered by the reminiscences of his family.
“It was ruthless,” he mentioned.
“My first six months have been so tough. I did not play a recreation. There have been coach modifications on a regular basis, which you do not see a lot in Australia. I used to be getting disregarded of the squad as a result of clearly I wasn’t well-known there, and I used to be a younger child as properly, in order that they did not actually care.
“So it was a extremely tough interval: I went from being a reputation popping out of the A-League, simply enjoying my first recreation for Australia, to just about being non-existent over there.
“There have been undoubtedly occasions the place I used to be like, ‘let’s simply go house, it is simpler again house’. However the different a part of me mentioned, ‘you have come this far, you have taken this huge plunge ahead. If I used to be to come back again now, I might assume I would failed myself.’ I by no means need to really feel like that. I am grateful I had that mentality, as a result of it is bought me right here as we speak.”
Pushing by these early difficulties ended up altering Behich’s life.
He stayed at Bursaspor till 2018, finally incomes a big-money transfer to Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven for a reported $4.5 million — one of many highest charges ever paid for an Australian abroad — earlier than circling again to play in Turkey for the subsequent 4 years.
Nevertheless it was off the sector the place the larger transformations occurred.
Behich’s time enjoying soccer in Turkey allowed him to be taught extra about himself and his household’s historical past.(Ann Odong)
Behich already spoke Turkish due to his dad and mom, however dwelling there for the higher a part of a decade meant he discovered to learn and write it fluently. He immersed himself in the historical past and the tradition of the nation; its music and its meals, its sport and its tales. It grew to become his second house.
It additionally gave him a greater understanding of his household’s advanced relationship with the nation: that tangle of affection and disappointment that many first-generation migrants really feel when separated from all the pieces they ever knew.
Over time, his understanding of himself started to vary, too, as he was determining who he was and the place he belonged.
“I all the time felt Australian, however I do have the Turkish blood in me, so I used to be all the time the participant caught in-between,” he mentioned.
“You’d have the foreigners, after which the Turkish locals, and I used to be all the time the participant within the center, which was good and dangerous.
“I all the time bought requested by them why I did not play for Turkey. Nevertheless it by no means crossed my thoughts. I all the time wished to play for Australia; I grew up there, I began my soccer there. They gave my household a life.
“Even my dad mentioned, ‘the very best choice you made was enjoying for Australia.’ Australia gave us an opportunity. I’ve all the time felt like I needed to give one thing again.”
One other a part of Behich’s identification that Turkey allowed him to discover was one which had taken a again seat whereas he targeted on soccer: his religion.
His household was Muslim, and his childhood was structured by visits to the native mosque along with his dad, or hanging on the market with buddies on Friday afternoons after faculty. He’d take part in traditions like Ramadan and Eid, however he did not have a lot curiosity in Islam or its teachings again then.
Now 31, Behich has turn into extra reflective and inquisitive about his faith; the concepts and ideas and classes he can incorporate into his life as his post-playing days draw nearer.
Behich is at present the one Muslim participant within the Socceroos and hopes to steer by instance.(Getty Pictures: Kevin C. Cox)
“I am a really proud Muslim,” he mentioned.
“I am undecided why, however as I’ve gotten older, I discover I am transferring extra in direction of it. Dwelling in Turkey and studying off my mum and my dad, asking all of them kinds of questions, has made me open myself to it extra.
“It is tough typically with soccer with issues like fasting. It isn’t the healthiest factor to do; I’ve tried earlier than however your physique would not cope properly. I get all the way down to the mosque once I can, although, and I am studying much more about it now.
“I attempt to be a task mannequin as greatest as I could be. After I signify Australia, I am additionally representing the Muslim group in Australia. On the finish of the day, everybody’s beliefs are their very own; I simply attempt to present that it is potential to beat your desires.
“For me, it is nearly being a superb particular person, on and off the sector. Rising up, the principle factor my dad and mom taught us youngsters was to be grounded, to be respectful of everybody round you, and to be a superb particular person it doesn’t matter what. So that is what I’ve all the time tried to be.”
Behich hopes he can take that reflective mentality to Qatar to compete in his second consecutive World Cup with the Socceroos this November.
He nonetheless will get goosebumps when he remembers strolling out in opposition to France at his first match in 2018, standing alongside his countrymen and in entrance of his household, wanting up on the bursts of yellow within the stands as all of them sang the Australian anthem collectively.
Behich mentioned lining up for the Socceroos in opposition to France on the 2018 World Cup was the second he realised all of the battle was price it.(Getty Pictures: Shaun Botterill)
“It is tough to elucidate that feeling to folks,” he mentioned.
“And that is what I inform the youthful [players]: after you have that have, no one can take that away from you. It is adrenaline. It is satisfaction. It is emotion.
“After I had a style of that, I mentioned to my dad, ‘I will be there once more in 4 years’ time, I am going to do no matter I can.'”
He felt all of it once more when Australia defeated Peru in a well-known penalty shoot-out in June.
He wasn’t nervous within the tunnel earlier than that recreation; if something, he was as assured and decided as ever. He recollects turning to fellow veteran Aaron Mooy after the primary play-off in opposition to the UAE and saying: “this may very well be our final likelihood to go to a World Cup. We will not exit like this. We’ve got to return.”
Behich is lower than two months away from it now and is doing all the pieces he can — together with transferring half-way world wide to Scotland — to expertise it for what may very well be the final time.
As he pulls into the automobile park on the college, I ask him what it means to him to be a Socceroo.
He pauses.
“The Socceroos imply one thing completely different to everybody, however for me personally, it is all the pieces,” he says.
Behich’s profession for membership and nation has been a rollercoaster, however he would not change a factor.(Getty Pictures: Mohamed Farag)
“All of my choices in soccer have been to play for the nationwide group. When you play in your nation, there isn’t a feeling prefer it.
“That is what I say to the youthful boys coming by, you may’t take it without any consideration. That is what drives me on daily basis. I will be 32 this yr however I nonetheless really feel that keenness. The Socceroos are the explanation I get up on daily basis and work laborious and attempt to do properly.
“I am so grateful to have a chance to go to a different World Cup. It goes by so shortly that you do not actually realise how particular it’s.
“If you have a look at our squad, we’re so multicultural. It isn’t one thing you see a lot with different nationwide groups — and it is an excellent factor. We be taught off one another consistently.
“Everybody comes with a distinct background, completely different faith, however we’re all right here representing Australia for a similar cause: we need to put on that jersey and make the nation that raised us proud.”
This story is a part of ABC Sport’s “Socceroos In The Highlight” collection within the build-up to the 2022 World Cup. You’ll be able to learn half one on Mitch Duke right here, and half two on Ajdin Hrustic right here.
Originally published at Gold Coast News HQ
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