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But his mother was born in Australia,his brother lives in Perth,and like former Hibernian teammate Martin Boyle,that gave him a back door to the Socceroos.
“Scotland never qualify for World Cups. I always had in the back of my head,coming to Australia and playing for the national team,” he said.
“I actually remember speaking in Boyler about it,years and years ago - we used to speak of it all the time. It was good to get a couple of caps for Scotland,obviously that was an honour for me as well. But it’s kind of not worked out for me in Scotland.
“I love Australia. It’s an honour to be here. Obviously,with my mum being born here and stuff,and my brother being here,we’ve always had a nice soft spot for Australia. Even my mum’s house is full of Australia merchandise. It’s a big part of our family.”
And Cummings has been welcomed with open arms into the Socceroos family,which after two years of COVID chaos,is starting to feel like an actual family again. On Tuesday,he was part of a group of players that visited Mitchelton FC,which was ravaged by Brisbane’s floods earlier this year,for an autograph signing and meet-and-greet session with junior players.
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“He’s a legend,” said goalkeeper Mitch Langerak. “Guys like him and Boyler,Harry[Souttar],with that with a strong accent but playing Australia,I love it. It brings like another dynamic. These guys are such big personalities,like Jason,it definitely brings out like a good atmosphere combined with our team.”
Cummings is still facing an uphill battle to overtake incumbent strikers Jamie Maclaren,Adam Taggart and Mitchell Duke to earn a spot in Graham Arnold’s final 26-man World Cup squad,and Thursday’s friendly against New Zealand in Brisbane - plus the rematch in Auckland three days later - is his big chance to impress. But at his age,Cummings could also play a part in the following World Cup cycle.
“For me,personally,anyway,there’s no friendlies in football at all. Even pre-season just now with the Mariners,I go into those games personally like they’re World Cup finals. I want to go into every game,score as many goals as I can and do the best I can. Nothing really changes,” he said. “I’ll be going into these games,hopefully,I can get on the pitch and the rest will just take care of itself.”