Joining Tony Popovic in the far West, Ikonomidis now sits top of the A-League table with Perth Glory and second in the scoring charts, with six goals from eight appearances and seven shots on target. He also leads the league in tackles evaded and corners won.

This form has skyrocketed the Aussie back into the Socceroos fold – he hasn’t made a national appearance in over two years - beating the established likes of Tomi Juric and his former mentor Troisi for a spot in the 23-man squad.

Ikonomidis' competitive debut against Bangladesh, alongside current Glory teammates Mathew Spiranovic and Jason Davidson

Arguably the brightest Aussie talent in the competition this season, he now heads to the Asian Cup as a defending champion, although he'd barely began his professional career when the Socceroos won the tournament on home soil. 

With Australia’s previous attacking hope, Mathew Leckie, likely to be ruled out for at least the group stage and possibly the entire tournament with a torn muscle fibre, Ikonomidis now faces progressing from public unknown, to high-profile bolter, to potential national team starter in a couple of months.

“Obviously it's a great honour and the pinnacle for Australian players,” Ikonomidis said after his selection.

"I'm delighted that my hard work has paid off, but none of this would have been possible without my Perth Glory teammates and the boss believing in me and giving me the platform and the tools to perform week in, week out.

"I'm really excited about going into camp now with the Socceroos and about being involved with the very attacking brand of football that Graham Arnold has implemented, which I think will suit me very much."

Ultimately, Ikonomidis is now benefitting as much from well-timed decisions as his determination and precocious talent.

Returning to the A-League is far from a death-knell for our most promising young footballers; as Ikonomidis says, the quality of the individuals they return to has the greatest impact.

But if he needs any more motivation as to the importance of decision-making in a footballer’s career, he needs look no further than the smattering of former Socceroos in the Perth Glory lineup, who may have been alongside him at the Asian Cup were it not for their own career moves.

“There are a lot of Socceroos in the squad, like (Matthew) Spiranovic, (Jason) Davidson, (Ivan) Franjic, they all came up and congratulated me,” he told socceroos.com.au

“They were ecstatic.”