Rejuvenated Socceroo Luongo dares to dream of EPL

Less than a year after hitting the career crossroads, Massimo Luongo can’t help but dare to dream of reaching the pinnacle.

The 31-year-old is back in the Socceroos fold, enjoying his football and thriving in the English Championship.

At second-placed Ipswich Town, Luongo and Socceroos teammate Cam Burgess are contending for silverware – and promotion to the Premier League.

“Me and Cam talk about it all the time,” Luongo says of the latter.

“For sure, I think we’ve got one eye on it. But secretly, we don’t really – well we say we don’t look at the table til Christmas.”

In club limbo last year, Luongo has thrived since initially taking up a six-month deal at then-League One club Ipswich in January.

“It was a tough period, like a big crossroads in my career, about what I want to do,” Luongo said.

“I’ve got a family and kids and ‘do I go the path of keep pushing and keep trying to elevate my career or do I just settle and think of what’s best for me as a person or my family and go for the comfortable option?’

“Especially the six months where I couldn’t find a club, I ended up at Middlesbrough and I wasn’t playing. That was a really tough period. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.

“A bit of luck helps. I ended up at Ipswich.

“To be fair, as a person I just try and do the right things in life, on the training pitch, off the training pitch, just to keep myself going and when called upon, like at Ipswich, I was ready.”

Initially on a six-month deal, Luongo helped the Tractor Boys earn promotion to England’s second tier, and is at the heart of their current campaign.

“It’s a good place to be but it is a lot of pressure and a lot of stress for that little bit of success on Saturday at five o’clock after the game,” he said.

“It’s relentless.”

The intensity of club land has made returning to the Socceroos a nice change of pace.

Luongo, called up for the first time in four years last month, feels coach Graham Arnold has him set up to succeed.

“He said to me ‘when you play, I want you to play how you play for your club and we’ll adjust to you.’ So that’s easy,” he said.

The Socceroos start World Cup qualifiers against Bangladesh at AAMI Park on Thursday, then face Palestine in Kuwait on Tuesday.

Luongo isn’t looking any further ahead.

“Just getting called up is a little fairy tale for myself,” he said.

“(At Sheffield) Wednesday, I had loads of injuries for probably an 18-month, two-year period where I didn’t play a lot of football.

“To turn that around and to keep going and then get a call-up and play, I think that’s my biggest cherry on top.”