Nick Carle won five Australian indoor titles as a junior. By 15 he’d exploded onto the NSL like a bolt of lightning. At 19, the Aussie had been signed by French super-coach Alain Perrin who threw him straight into the first team at Troyes. At 23, Carle was a bona-fide Hyundai A-League star at Newcastle Jets and one of the faces of the league’s much-hyped TV commercial. "How many dudes you know roll like this?" asked Scribe on the ad’s soundtrack. Not many, in Carle’s case.

Which makes the midfielder’s continued cold-shoulder by the senior national team – particularly when A-League players are needed to fill the breach – even more of a head-scratcher.

The recent Socceroos squad for the Asian Cup clash with Kuwait was entirely A-League-based. Carle was overlooked. The midfielder didn’t make the Asian Cup squad for last February’s match against Bahrain, either. And he was famously left out of Frank Farina’s Olympics squad for the Athens 2004 campaign.

Asked the perennial question of why he thinks he hasn’t been selected more often for the Socceroos – one appearance so far, a seven minute cameo in a friendly against Venezuela in 2004 – particularly when home based players are used, Carle pauses. "Look, it’s… I’m not sure,” he replies, obviously more hurt than he wants to reveal.

Carle has no shortage of admirers, despite the Socceroo snub. Former national and Olympic team coach Raul Blanco slams the non-selection of the Newcastle Jets midfielder as “strange” and "sad to see".

"It’s a good question: why hasn’t Nick played more for the national team?” asks Blanco. “I don’t know what the coaches in the national set up are looking for so I can’t say. But I can say, like everyone seems to acknowledge in Australia, he has a rare quality and magic skills. He can unlock a defence and has that unexpected skill.

"No question, he is one of the best players we’ve produced and is improving week by week. It’s sad to see such a talent not get his chance. It is strange but maybe they are looking for a different type of player."

Carle’s current coach at Newcastle, Nick Theodorakopoulos, describes the attacking midfielder’s touch as "Maradona-like", while Jets skipper – and former Socceroo captain – Paul Okon says Carle has the ability to "go far in football. You notice that South American style immediately. He is very, very talented."

A teenage Carle at Sydney Olympic
A teenage Carle at Sydney Olympic


"I’m a fan of his," says Fox Sports pundit Robbie Slater. "Nick’s the sort of player you’d pay to watch, he could be such a star. It’s probably a mental thing – how far can he go is up to him. Coaches may’ve gotten frustrated with his style. We come from a different footballing culture in this country, but he is definitely one of the best of the modern generation and he is yet to realise his full potential."

Different footballing culture sums up what most speculate: Carle simply doesn’t fit the mould. We’re not accustomed to playing a system with a number 10 in the way a South American nation would, even though Carle’s work-rate and defensive work improved immeasurably throughout last season.

Carle himself refuses to be drawn into the debate, but is nevertheless hurting. "Obviously I’m very, very disappointed," he tells FourFourTwo. "Once again, I’ve missed out. It’s a game of opinions. I thought I’d merited a chance, but Arnie picks the side, not me. I was over the moon when I got that call up in Venezuela. Since then, my national team career has just gone downhill.

"I feel the same as I did when I missed selection for the Olympic side in 2004 ("He was gutted," whispers Carle’s pregnant wife Mel to me while her husband is doing the photoshoot). "I still think that was the most disappointed I’ve been in my career."