Con Ouzounidis

A little left-field, but 19-year-old Ouzounidis is fighting through arguably the best academy in England at the moment with Everton, under England’s best youth coach in David Unsworth.

A ball-playing centreback with a knack for scoring goals, Ouzounidis has also been drawing high praise. Short-lived Toffees defender Ramiro Funes Mori played one match with the teen last year and walked away raving about the youthful Aussie: “I think he’s got a really good future.”

“I feel like I’ve came on a lot over the past year,” Ouzounidis said after signing a professional contract.

“I got injured, which was a blow, but I was in the gym a lot with the physio so that helped me develop physically. Coaches like [Under-18s boss] Paul Tait and Unsy [David Unsworth] in the Under-23s have helped me out a lot, too.

"Unsy used to be a centre-half and he’s been there and done it for the first team, so he knows what it takes to get there. I just have to take what he says on board and put it into my game.”

Ben Folami

A striker, a striker, our kingdom for a striker.

If losing Daniel Arzani, Aaron Mooy, Martin Boyle and possibly Matt Leckie and Tom Rogic from the Socceroos Asian Cup campaign has been good for anything – and obviously it has – then Chris Ikonomidis’s sudden importance could finally signal a new Socceroos striker.

But Ikonomidis isn’t naturally a striker; even at Perth Glory he’s been playing as part of a front two. One day, his partner in crime may just be Gbenga Tai Folami – but just call him Ben.

Like Ikonomidis, Folami is a Sutherland Sharks alumni and the 19-year-old has already racked up four Championship appearances for cellar-dwellars Ipswich Town. He’s highly rated by the Tractor Boys and, by the sounds of things, that’s saying something.

“It’s a lot more cutthroat there,” he told AAP. “If they don’t think you’re up to it, or good enough, you’re gone.”

Denis Genreau

If you thought Paris was a romantic honeymoon destination, turns out Parisians think the same thing about ol’ Sydney. Who could have guessed traffic jams were so damned attractive?

Parisian-born Genreau emigrated to Australia as a child when his parents fell in love with the Harbour City and after picking up the round-ball sport, may have assumed finding opportunities Down Under would be a little easier than in Europe.

Turns out, he was better off heading back. After making five appearances over two years at Melbourne City, Genreau secured a loan move to PEC Zwolle in the Eredivisie.

Suddenly the 19-year-old is a regular for an Eredivisie club: that’s more than Trent Sainsbury and Aziz Behich can say.

“If you don’t fit the coach’s style, you don’t play,” he explained to The Daily Football Show. But now Genreau faces his sternest test, impressing a new coach with Zwolle on the verge of relegation.

If he can retain his place in the lineup through this, the Socceroos may prove a cakewalk.