{"id":32071,"date":"2026-06-16T03:34:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/32071\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T03:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T03:34:37","slug":"south-australian-community-family-reacts-to-nestory-irankundas-world-cup-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/32071\/","title":{"rendered":"South Australian community, family reacts to Nestory Irankunda’s World Cup goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The family and community of Nestory Irankunda are “very emotional” after his World Cup debut, where he became the youngest Socceroos player to kick a goal in the event.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old, from Adelaide’s northern suburbs, scored the opening goal against T\u00fcrkiye on Sunday, helping Australia secure a momentous 2-0 victory in its first World Cup game.<\/p>\n

The Tanzanian-born star is among five Adelaide players who made it into this year’s World Cup squad<\/a> alongside Tete Yengi, Mo Tour\u00e9, Awer Mabil and Paul Izzo.<\/p>\n

His cousin Vianne Kurikwimana told 891 ABC Adelaide on Monday morning it was a “very, very emotional” moment to witness alongside Irankunda’s father, Gideon Rurandagaye.<\/p>\n

“We started celebrating when he was just about to shoot and everything just \u2026 went dark, we were just jumping around,” Mr Kurikwimana said from Vancouver, where the pair travelled to watch the match.<\/p>\n

“Gideon was very emotional, [it’s the] very first time I’ve ever seen him this emotional in my life.”<\/p>\n

\"Soccer<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda with father Gideon Rurandagaye at Hindmarsh Stadium in 2023. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)<\/p>\n

Mr Rurandagaye said he was incredibly proud of his son, adding that all the practice over the years \u2014 which included some broken windows around the house \u2014 had paid off.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes I teach him in the park and home, I show him some things \u2026 sometimes he broke windows and glasses in the home \u2026 very naughty,” he said.<\/p>\n

Adelaide United coach Airton Andrioli said he had identified something unique about Irankunda when he first met him.<\/p>\n

\"Adelaide<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda takes a shot at goal during a training session at Adelaide United in 2023. (Supplied: Adelaide United Football Club)<\/p>\n

“The description of his father saying that he was a bit naughty, I can say that I agree with that because he was a bit of a handful to handle,” Mr Andrioli said.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t feel that as a problem. I saw that if that can be guided in the right direction, into the right channel, then it can be a good recipe with all the other attributes he already had.”<\/p>\n

Mr Andrioli said Irankunda had already “inspired many kids to be like him” during his time at the club.<\/p>\n

“He already made it because he was inspiring other players and other kids to look up to him and to become somebody like him,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Then, he went from that position to going overseas and now scoring yesterday … it’s a credit to him.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Airton Andrioli says he saw something special in Nestory Irankunda when he first met him. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

Mr Kurikwimana said his family were incredibly grateful for the support it had received from the community, including in Adelaide’s northern suburbs where Irankunda played local soccer and attended school.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of people I could name that helped our families, whether that was financially, transport \u2026 even if it was helping with equipment we didn’t have,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was forever grateful and I guess for their help, their blessing is seeing this at the big stage.”<\/p>\n

Community celebrates homegrown talent<\/p>\n

African Communities Council of SA chairperson Denis Yengi said the win represented “more than football”.<\/p>\n

\"African<\/p>\n

Denis Yengi says South Australia is the breeding ground for future African-Australian soccer players. (ABC News: Michael Clements)<\/p>\n

“I have been smiling since last night, and I’m not sure when it’s going to stop,” Mr Yengi said.<\/p>\n

“These guys are all from our community here, and so we are really so proud to see our community excelling on the global stage.”\"<\/p>\n

Kim Ncube and Alvina Kamara (right) watched the World Cup in Adelaide. (ABC News: Sophie Holder)<\/p>\n

Alvina Kamara was among thousands of South Australian fans who gathered in the city to cheer on the Socceroos.<\/a><\/p>\n

She said she was overjoyed by the victory.<\/p>\n

“It’s just so proud not just for Australia, not just for us, just the whole African community, it’s just amazing to see how far they’ve come,” Ms Kamara said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The family and community of Nestory Irankunda are “very emotional” after his World Cup debut, where he became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,957,7576,28579,4719,29306,28605,10531,26693,4721,28576,29305],"class_list":["post-32071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-adelaide-united","tag-airton-andrioli","tag-awer-mabil","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-gideon-rurandagaye","tag-local-soccer","tag-mo-toure","tag-paul-izzo","tag-socceroos","tag-tete-yengi","tag-vianne-kurikwimana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}