Adelaide's Veart slams Irankunda Olyroos' theories

Nestory Irankunda was still the talk of the A-League Men in his last home match at Adelaide.

Adelaide United coach Carl Veart has added more fuel to the controversy surrounding Nestory Irankunda’s omission from Australia’s U23 Asian Cup squad, insisting the teenage sensation had never spoken with anyone from Football Australia.

Irankunda was not selected by Olyroos coach Tony Vidmar for the Asian Cup in Qatar, which doubles as Olympic qualifiers, surprising many in A-League Men’s circles.

It was then reported Irankunda had been informally sounded out at the 11th hour as an injury replacement for Melbourne City’s Marco Tilio.

“No, he didn’t speak at all to anyone from the FA. There was no contact whatsoever from the FA to Nestor, so I don’t know where it’s coming from,” insisted Veart after Adelaide’s 2-1 defeat by Macarthur.

“I had a conversation with Tony Vidmar before the squad was announced, I had a conversation after the squad was announced and I had a conversation with him this week.

“At no time did they select him.”

In the lead up to the fixture, rival A-League clubs had privately pushed for Irankunda to be stood down for the duration of the Asian Cup, unimpressed that the teenager reportedly rebuffed the last-minute approach, giving the perception he had dictated his availability.

It’s this theory that’s angered Veart, with Football Australia confirming Irankunda was free to play having never “officially” been called up.

“I suppose it’s disappointing that two clubs wanted to try and stop a young player from playing football – it says more about those two clubs than it does about Nestor,” Veart said.

“It’s just disappointing. You always want to see young players playing, and to go down that path was disappointing.

“Look, I think it’s fairly easy (to work out who the clubs were). We’ve had four games left and two of them we’re playing, well we’ve got one more to play I think.

“It’s disappointing. You’ve got to get the full story and they’ve jumped without knowing all the information, haven’t they.”

Irankunda was again at the centre of everything in the Reds’ clash against Macarthur at Coopers Stadium on Friday night – the 18 year-old’s final home match before leaving for Bayern Munich at season’s end.

The speedster broke the deadlock with a stunning strike on 20 minutes before the 10-men Bulls managed to snatch victory with goals in the 84th and 88th minutes.

Irankunda had the chance to rescue a point for Adelaide with a penalty deep into stoppage time, but his spot kick lacked conviction and was saved by Macarthur keeper Filip Kurto.

Veart admitted it had been a challenging season for everyone at the club in trying to manage the various complex situations that have arisen due to the teenager’s supreme talent, ever-growing highlights reel and often over-zealous attention  leading to some difficult moments for the player.

“I think it’s going to be better for him to leave the country and go play over there because here we just don’t know how to look after the young players,” he said.

“It’s disappointing, the amount of talk about him. I suppose it’s going to make it easier for me – I can have press conferences where every question is not about Nestor.”