The 2023/24 football season has been a whirlwind experience for Subway Socceroos midfielder Jackson Irvine.
Over the course of the season Irvine led his club St Pauli to the 2. Bundesliga title and promotion, he got married, and played in all 15 of the Socceroos games since September 2023 – which included the Asian Cup, of course.
Now that the season has come to an end, Irvine reflected on what has been an incredibly busy year.
“It's been pretty wild, obviously it's all been amazing, but it's been pretty full on,” he said.
“But it's been the accumulation of everything you've worked for in football and then topped off with your personal life and everything's coming together at once - it's pretty special.”
He added: "When you break it down in terms of your career, and moments in life, it's hard to put into words, kind of how special this time has been.”
Irvine finished the 23/24 league campaign for St Pauli with six goals and nine assists as he captained the side to Bundesliga promotion for the first time in 13 years.
He said that it was a special season for him and the club and was so proud when they achieved promotion.
“Promotion day was one of the wildest experiences of my life, it was really great,” he said.
“I knew when we did it, it would be special and it would be big for the city and for the community, but I'd probably didn't realise how much until we actually achieved that.”
He added though that the celebrations were, well, chaotic.
“I kept finding myself in these different places like you're on the pitch, then you're in the tunnel with the players, in the dressing room, and back out on the pitch then we're in the streets with the fans. It was just absolute chaos,” he said.
“Everyone got so caught up in everything that's happened like literally promotion Sunday, supposed to get married Tuesday - blew it, married Wednesday, championship on Sunday, parade Monday and flew to Australia Tuesday, it's been absolute carnage.”
Speaking of the marriage, Irvine and his now wife Jemilla Pir, had to delay the ceremony due to a blunder involving passports.
“The plan was to go off to Denmark and get married. Tuesday didn't quite go to plan safe to say,” he said.
“We were on the drive up from Hamburg up to Denmark is only about three hours. We both forgot (passports), it wasn't just me, we both forgot and then it was just panic stations.
“Thankfully the beautiful people at the registry were able to scrape an appointment for us again the next day, so we got there in the end.”
After the season finished, Irvine and his new wife got to celebrate with their families.
“We went back to Melbourne after the end of the season, we had a big party with my family, that was good fun and we'll go over to the UK and have a party with the other side as well.”
Looking ahead to next season, which will be Irvine’s first in the top tier of German football, he said it is hard to know what to expect.
“I don't know what's going to happen next year, I don't know how it's going to go for us, but you've earned the opportunity,” he said.
“That's all you ever want in the game is you want to earn the chance to do it at the highest level possible and against the very best, that's all you really want.”
Before next season starts though, he reminded himself just how special 2023/24 has been for him, his family and his teammates.
“People play football for different reasons, I know, but I've always just wanted to test myself and wanted to push myself to the highest level, to be the best player I can be,” he said.
“All I ever really wanted in football was to be a part of something special and I feel like this season we were able to do that.”