Al Hassan Toure: It’s an honour to get called up
Al Hassan Toure said it was an honour to get called up by Head Coach Tony Popovic for his first CommBank Socceroos camp on the bank of fantastic performances for Sydney FC.
The 25-year-old has had to bide his time since bursting onto the scene as a teenager but has been rewarded for persistence and resilience through injury struggles.
He will have the opportunity to wear the green and gold alongside his brother, Mohamed, in a special moment for the family.
He was speaking to media from Houston ahead of the CommBank Socceroos two international friendlies against Venezuela and Colombia this week.
Being called up for the first time
It's been amazing. It’s always an honour to get called up to play for your country. So, yeah, it's been amazing. The boys have been good. They've welcomed me well into the team, as well as the coaching staff.
It's good to have a friendly face [Mohamed] in camp, especially for your first one. I know a couple of boys here as well, so they've been lovely. Like I said, they’ve welcomed me well. Just having him there, showing me around, introducing me to people, it's been good.
Playing alongside his brother
We've spoken about it. It's kind of surreal to have brothers playing for the same team. We’ve talked with my Dad, and Mum, and my brothers. We’re just so excited not only to play together, but to represent a country together. It’s amazing. We just want to enjoy the moment. If we get the chance to play together, even better. Right now, we're both very excited and very happy.
With our family, we're very close. So whenever anyone's playing, everyone just comes to our house to watch the game and celebrate together. I've seen videos after games where the whole family is screaming in the living room and just sending videos to us, so it's great to see. I'm sure that if me and Mohamed do play together, they'll all be there watching the game and waiting for us to score or do something.
Six South Australian players in the squad
Adelaide is a small city, but I think in the past few years, we've shown that we can produce talent. It’s good to play with them again. I’ve played with most of them, not at the same time, but at different points in my career. With that, we know each other's strengths and weaknesses, and we have the chemistry there already. It would be great to play alongside them again and just represent the country as best as we can.
The journey to get here
I had a lot of injuries when I was in Europe, and I was struggling with game time and the injuries in general. When I came [to Sydney FC] the goal was always to help me get back to what I was before. They did a great job with my body in terms of rehab, getting me stronger and fitter.
As a footballer, you never want to get injuries, especially in your career. Football is not a very long career. You only play for as long as your body can handle. Your body is your tool. Once you're getting all these injuries, you start to doubt yourself. You start to feel that you can't anymore. Mentally, I just try to be my best, do my rehab as properly as I can, and just try to get back out there. Sometimes people give up, or some people doubt themselves. I really try to think positively every time I go to training, so I'm not in that mindset, and I'm always thinking I can do better, and I will do better.
Improvement areas in camp
The most important thing for me right now is just being here. I think he [Tony Popovic] has rewarded me for my performances, and I just want to be here and show him that I deserve to be here - that's the main thing. Go out there, train hard every day and hopefully get some minutes.
Thinking ahead to the World Cup
The World Cup is one of the biggest things a footballer can do. Once you're a kid playing football, you always think to go to the World Cup. It would be very good for me and the family if I were to go there. But like I said, I don't really think too much ahead like that. I just want to focus on the camp, and then when I go back to club football, if I do what I've been doing the past few weeks, the opportunity will come. So that's what I'm doing at the moment.
Match Details
Venezuela v CommBank Socceroos
Date: Friday, 14 November (local)
Venue: Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, Texas
Kick-off: 8:30pm local/1:30pm AEDT (Saturday, November 15)
Tickets: Click here for Tickets
Broadcast: 10, 10.com.au, Paramount+