McKain, who grew up in Brisbane, hung up his boots in February at the age of 34.

The centre back and sometimes defensive midfielder played for Australia at Under-20, Under-23 and senior level, including in an Olympics and a Confederations Cup, and in Romania, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. It total he made 326 appearances for club and country.

The retired defender Jon McKain has lifted the lid to FourFourTwo on his 17-year stint as a professional.
 




“It’s been a long career, I’ve been very lucky to have such a career,” McKain says.

“It’s something when your young you dream of having a professional career, which is all to do with timing, a bit of a luck and perseverance. My big break was at the Queensland Academy Sport with Gary Phillips, he saw a bit in me.

 

“Everything sort of developed from there.”

His career kicked off in 1999 when he made his debut as a 17-year old for Brisbane Strikers.
McKain made 67 appearances for the Strikers before departing to join National Bucuresti in Romania.
 




“I knew the NSL was coming to the end and I knew I didn’t want to go back and play local league,” he explains.

“I had a Romanian friend of mine who contacted me about a chance of going to Romania to play. I said Romania, no way, I’m not going there. Push came to shove and he said why don’t you fly over, I’ll come with you and have a look, see if you like it.

“It won’t cost you anything, it’s all paid for. I was only 20 and going to a different country, a different place. I didn’t speak the language but as a 20-year old I thought wow. So I flew over, I was very fortunate that the coach was Walter Zenga.

“He spoke really good English. He was a fantastic guy, he saw a lot in me. I ended up feeling comfortable and I signed. It wasn’t easy but I was fortunate that first season I played quite well.”

McKain’s move to the Liga 1 was followed by several other Australians. He explains how he helped his coach, Italian legend Zenga, recruit several players after he was selected for the 2004 Athens Olympics squad.

“I ended up getting selected for the Olympic team,” he says.

“They came to the Olympics and ended up getting Srhoj, Michael Thwaite and Ryan Griffiths. That following year we had four Aussies with us and had quite a good year. It was a really enjoyable year.”

In Athens the Olyroos reached the quarter-finals after a 1-1 draw with Tunisia, a 5-1 win over Serbia and Montenegro and a 1-0 loss to Argentina.

 

“It was a dream,” McKain says.

“When I was younger I always dreamed of going to the Olympics, before I dreamed of going to the World Cup. I was fortunate to go to the Olympics, I was lucky that Frank [Farina] was the coach. It was an unbelievable experience.”

Australia was knocked out in the quarter-finals with a 1-0 defeat to Iraq.

“If we played that game again 100 times we wouldn’t lost it, but it was just one of those games,” McKain says.

“It was a disappointing way to go out.”

In total the central defender spent five seasons in Romania, two with National Bucuresti and three with Politehnica Timisoara. He moved to the Banat Boys after a dispute with the Bancarii.

“Leading into that World Cup in 2006 my club at the time, I had a chance to move to Germany and they wouldn’t let me go,” McKain remembers.

“It caused a big outcry and they wanted me to re-sign, I didn’t want to re-sign. I ended up leaving six months later for free, even though I was owed a lot of money. It was a bad situation. We both kind of ended up losing out of it.”

Dealing with life on and off the field in the former communist controlled country was a challenge, but one McKain says was a learning curve.

“I learnt a lot. It was hard at times, but there was nothing to come back to,” he says.

“There was no A-League, so it makes you a bit headstrong and a bit more determined to kick on. Looking back on it, it really did make me a better footballer and a better person as well.
One of the biggest issues was pay. Generally 90% of the clubs pay late, and that’s just the way it is.

"You’ve got to get used to it. I was always owed two or three months. As long as you were playing you’d get the money. If you weren’t, you’d have to chase it.”

McKain remembers one time he was deported from Romania when he tried to return from a friendly match in Italy, despite having the correct paperwork, because of a rival club.

“We had a friendly against AC Milan and Dinamo Bucharest wanted to sign me,” he says.

“When I arrived I got handcuffed and sent back to Italy. Later we learned the Dinamo police had paid a few people to stuff a few of the foreign boys up at our club, because our club had refused to transfer us. You laugh about it now, but what a experience, a life experience as well as a football one.”

In 2004 McKain made his debut for the Socceroos, coming off the bench to replace Kevin Muscat in a 6-0 rout of the Solomon Islands at the Sydney Football Stadium.

He earned two caps that year, eight in 2005 and two more in 2006.

“Frank got the job and brought through a few of us from the Olympic team,” McKain says.

“It was an honour, especially to play with that Golden Generation. They were some of my idols growing up and to be able to call them mates and teammates. I was just a young kid. They’re just good guys.

“I was really humbled to hang out with them and call them teammates and friends. It was great to be part of that and to call myself a Socceroo.”

McKain went on to feature at the 2005 Confederations Cup in Germany, which saw Australia up against the hosts, Argentina and Tunisia. After a thrilling 4-3 defeat to Germany, the Socceroos were beaten 4-2 by Argentina and 2-0 by Tunisia.

“I came on in all of those games, against Germany I came on for the last 30-35 minutes as a holding midfielder,” he reflects.

“I marked Michel Ballack. That second game we were playing Argentina and I had that holding role again and I was marking Riquelme, which was another tough challenge. On his day he was a gun.

“And the third game was against Tunisia. I started that game as well but unfortunately we didn’t get the result to go through which was disappointing. But it was fantastic, one of the biggest tournaments I played in.”



After the Confederations Cup Farina was replaced by Dutchman Guus Hiddink. McKain, who was often used as a holding midfielder in the national team rather than as a centre back, made only three appearances under Hiddink and missed the cut for the 2006 World Cup squad.

“It was just unfortunate after the Confederations Cup that Frank got the sack and Guus came in,” he says.

“I had a couple of camps with Guus but he didn’t see me as the player he wanted to take to the World Cup so he put some other boys in. The rest is history. I was realistic. I was always more comfortable playing at centre back, I wanted to play centre back.

"Obviously we had the captain (Lucas Neill), Craig Moore, Popa, it’s a pretty hard task getting in in front of them. I was very happy to play wherever they wanted me to, but always I wanted a chance to play in my position.

"Once Guus came in I had two camps with him and you get a good feeling straight away or not, and I kind of knew straight away that he didn’t see me as the kind of player he wanted in his team, which is fair enough.

“I wasn’t bitter. Did I get the opportunity? No. Did I deserve it? Well, not really according to him. He was the coach. I was disappointed to get the call from Arnie, he was the assistant coach at the time, to let me know I wasn’t going to the World Cup.

“I knew it was coming, but I never really did get the chance to show what I could do. He had other ideas, others plans, and I respected that.”

The Socceroos went on to stun the footballing world by reaching the knockout stage in Germany, and McKain said he didn’t find it hard watching the tournament  on TV.

“I loved watching it,” he says.

“I just wanted them to do well and I was proud of what we achieved. It was a really good moment for Australian movement. I’m disappointed I never did play in a World Cup, that was one thing I would have loved to have done, but that’s more probably disappointment at myself at what I could have done or what I could have improved.”

Under Pim Verbeek McKain was in the wilderness when it came to national team selection. The defender spent three years out of the Socceroos side and described it as “strange” under Verbeek.

“I had two camps with him – one camp I came in and I had pretty good form coming in,” he says.

“I thought I did well in training and then it came to the game and I didn’t play. I wasn’t on the bench. And then in the next squad I wasn’t involved. He just didn’t rate me straight away and he didn’t rate a lot of boys in the A-League.

“He had a bit of a personality, a demeanor that it wasn’t a good league. I never really got the chance with him.”

McKain returned home in 2008 to join the Wellington Phoenix, where he spend two years. Family reasons drew him back and the Phoenix had a successful period, finishing fourth in 2010 and getting to within one game of the grand final.

“We just had a first baby and that was one of the reasons I came back to the A-League,” he says.

“It was fantastic at the Phoenix, a great group of boys. The set-up, it was a small club but the people were fantastic. The Phoenix still aren’t kind of viewed as being part of the A-League, that’s my opinion.

“If you play well at the Phoenix or you play well at Brisbane, I’d say most times they’d pick the player from Brisbane in terms of the national team. Any day of the week. [But] we had a great side. Things went our way and we managed to get results.”

In 2010 his former coach Zenga came calling. The opportunity to join Saudi club Al-Nassr was presented and McKain’s transfer went through for US$ 1.5 million.

“He wanted to get an Australian/Asian central defender,” he says.

“It was unfortunate that after five months he got the sack, we were coming second and he ended up getting the sack. It was a bad decision. I managed to last to the end of the season.
I had another year on my deal but I’d seen enough and got released at the end of that first year.”

Despite only staying in Saudi Arabia for one season, McKain enjoying his time in the Middle East nation.

“The people were fantastic, they’re very warm,” he says.

“It was amazing. It was a great life experience and we never would have experienced it without football. On the football side I played in front of some amazing crowds, some of the biggest I’ve ever played in front of.

“For the derby there was 85,000 all men screaming, you couldn’t hear a thing. It was a rude experience for me.”



That year McKain won a recall to the Socceroos under new boss Holger Osieck. He played four games under the German’s tenure and was part of the 2011 Asian Cup squad.

“I got on well with Holger,” he says.

“I was lucky enough to go to the Asian Cup. I trained really hard and I think he respected that. We had a fantastic tournament, we were unlucky to lose to Japan in that final. He got the boot after that and I kind of knew my international career was over. I was happy with that.

"I thought it was over when I was in Saudi Arabia and Holger called me up, to come back was a bit of a surprise but a very happy surprise. I was very happy to get back and play my part for the team.”

McKain’s last international appearance came against Serbia in Melboure in June 2011.

“16 caps and I reckon I had about 100 camps,” he joked.

“I was always in that training XI, I gave that first XI a good hit-out. I think I lasted so long because I knew my place. I always respected the older boys and knew that if I got a chance it was an honour.”

In 2011 McKain signed for Adelaide United and spent the next three seasons with the A-League club. At the Reds he butted heads with John Kosmina and Greg Griffin.

“That first year was difficult,” he admits.

“Rini [Coolen] didn’t last too long, he didn’t really get the support like he should have fron the club. In came Kossie [John Kosmina], which wasn’t the greatest thing for me. The first year was difficult, the second year was a bit easier and then the third year when [Josep] Gombau came in was fantastic.

"He’s a great coach, a great guy and we had a great team that year. Three mixed years but looking back I really enjoyed my time at Adelaide and it feels like home. I did want to stay longer but the chairman at the club had different ideas.



“It wasn’t a happy ending for me there, even though I wanted to stay. Josep wanted me to stay but the numbers didn’t add up, so I had to move on.”

In October 2014 he went overseas for one final spell – to Malaysian side Kelantan FA.

“I wanted one more stint somewhere that I could enjoy,” McKain said.

“One more stint that would set up financially a little bit more.”

 


 

Kelantan reached the FA Cup final in 2015, where they beaten by Lions XIII 3-0. McKain returned to Brisbane and to his family at the end of 2016. While he is still playing with Souths United in the Brisbane Premier League, his professional career is now over.

“It was time for me,” he admits.

“I had two years in Malaysia and I wasn’t enjoying my football that much, I was missing my family. It just got to the point where it wasn’t worth for it me. I stopped enjoying the game at that level.

“I felt like the time was right for me to come home. I was happy to do it on my own terms. I could have continued playing, I had some offers both in the A-League and overseas, but I’m happy with the decision.”

McKain’s playing career might be finished but his involvement with the game is not. The 34-year old is coaching two of his sons’ junior teams and is starting up his own private football academy at Souths United titled Football 482.

“I’m enjoying it so far, we’ll see where it leads to,” he says.

“Effectively it’s extra-training for kids. Small groups, a lot of possession and core skills. I’ve done by C License and I will do my B sometime this year.”