Ramsay recalls himself being touted for the Socceroos in his Adelaide United days, but to no avail. The 30-year-old still supports Australia and keeps in touch with good friend Matt Jurman.

Australia is in Group B, while Philippines is in Group C and it’s possible for the nations to meet in the Round of 16.

“It would be great if we come across the Socceroos, hopefully we get out of our group and we draw them,” Ramsay said.

“I’ve got quite a few friends that are in the Socceroos set-up, so it’ll be nice to come against them. Australia’s given a lot to me and my family, so it’ll be a nice moment to represent my mum’s country, play against Australia and it would mean a lot to me.

“I’ve known Matty a very long time. There’s Mooysie (Aaron Mooy), we played together at Melbourne City and my wife is good friends with his wife too. I also played with Mathew Leckie at Adelaide United, it’ll be nice to come up against them.”


Ramsay has just enjoyed a spell with Malaysian outfit Felda United FC, but has recently signed for Thai League 1 side Sukhothai FC.

He recalls having big dreams of playing in Europe when he was playing in Australia after having a taste in the UK.

Ramsay then left Melbourne in 2015 to join Iranian side Tractor Sazi and realised Asia was vastly progressing as a footballing continent.

He also has dreams of joining the J.League in the near future.

“When I was a youngster, I just came back from Scotland and playing in the A-League, I always had that ambition to go back to Europe and back when I was in Melbourne.

“I had some chances to go to Asia, but I just thought the timing wasn’t right and I thought I’d see what else would come up. Each year, Asia is getting stronger and I made that move to go to Iran, it was something I couldn’t turn down, I said ‘This is me now, I’ll try make a good career in Asia and try set my family up’.

“I’ve got flexibility with my Australian and Filipino passport because I also count as an ASEAN under my Filipino one and Asian under my Aussie. It gives me flexibility in terms of signing as a foreigner.

“To be honest I never really thought of going to these countries when I was playing in the A-League when I was 22-23, but nowadays, a lot of Aussies are trying to go to Asia.

Ramsay training in his Melbourne City days

“Asia is very competitive financially as well. They’re able to bring European and it only makes the leagues in Asia get stronger and Thailand is definitely one of them. The national team too, not long ago I watched Thailand play Australia and let’s be honest, it wasn’t an easy game was it?

“After qualifying for the Asian Cup, the Azkals are now getting a lot of support. For a period, the football in the Philippines was on the rise and then it declined a little bit.

“It’s very hard to compete with basketball as it’s the No.1 sport, but when the Azkals are taking part in tournaments like the Asian Cup, I think it shows football and the national team is heading in the right direction and hopefully in the near future, we can really compete with the basketball.”