Dare mention the name Josip Simunic to any plastered-on Socceroos fan and they'll no-doubt rugby tackle you in disgust, simultaneously recreating Simunic's drag-down of Mark Viduka in the 2006 World Cup. 

They'll probably go on to tell you that our hard-luck Socceroos have been losing talent to foreign nations since well before Simunic decided to join the Croats.

But while jaded Aussies like to look at what could have been, in truth, for every Christian Vieri lost there was a Tim Cahill gained. In fact, there's been quite a few more in the plus column, especially in recent years.

Graham Arnold's Socceroos squad against Kuwait featured a whopping six overseas-born players, from our Persian playmaker Daniel Arzani to Serbian stalwart Milos Degenek.

Now, heading into Australia's defence of the Asian Cup, the Socceroos' most exciting striker is suddenly a Scot, who'd never been to Australia until he faced South Korea last month.

Martin Boyle is actually the 18th Scottish-born footballer to represent the Socceroos. In return, we've given the Tartan Terriers one goalkeeper and he only won two caps.

Such is the flexible and pandering nature of nationality in modern football that we can now keep track of the Aussie footballing 'diaspora' in the hope that, should they ever show potential or crack the sh**ts with their national coaches, the Socceroos can knick another future talisman.

So without any more furtherado, here's the steal list:

1. Alex Robertson

If you don't know the name yet, you soon will.

The Manchester United-cum-Manchester City starlet is tipped to be the next big thing in English football. He also clearly isn't much of a patriot - he was born in Scotland, raised in Oz and has recently turned out for the England U/16s. 

Can we make it Scot number 19? Maybe get Boyle on the phone...

2. Fran Karacic

After Simunic, Ante Seric was the other high-profile 90's AIS graduate who chose Croatia over the Socceroos. While we've since scored Degenek off the Vatreni, that still leaves us one tough defender down.

Karacic, who plays for Croatia's in-demand feeder club, Lokomotiva NK, seems most likely to fill that slot. The 22-year-old - who was a regular prospect for the Croatian U/21s - would have already switched allegiances had Bert van Marwijk taken him to the World Cup.

He didn't, despite making the initial extended squad, but neither did Croatia, so the waiting game continues. The word from the Socceroos camp pre-World Cup was that Fran's limited English was an issue - but that's nothing a few after-hours classes can't fix.