Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Melbourne: Australia’s all-time leading scorer Tim Cahill will play for a club in his homeland for the first time in his senior career after signing with Melbourne City.
Cahill, the only Australian player to score at three FIFA World Cups, joins the Melbourne club on a three-year deal - the final twelve months of which will be as part of City Football Group’s coaching team..
The 36-year-old midfielder-turned-forward joins the club from the Chinese Super League’s Hangzhou Greentown who he left in July.
“I am incredibly excited to have signed with Melbourne City and ultimately the City Football Group. There is real ambition and purpose here, qualities that are immensely important to me,” Cahill told Melbourne’s official website.
“The club is completely attuned to the opportunity for the game in this country; investing significantly in facilities, the development of young players and in giving back at the grassroots level. For me that makes this the ideal place to be. I am here to contribute as much as I can to both the club and, where possible, to the further development of football here in Australia.
“My immediate focus is on getting to know my team-mates and our pre-season preparations. I’m excited about the quality of the squad that I am joining and the opportunity to win silverware. I’m looking forward to the challenge of testing and proving myself in this league.”
The signing marks Cahill’s first foray into Australian senior domestic football.
After leaving his home town Sydney to trial with English clubs as a 17-year-old junior in 1997, Cahill secured a deal with Millwall, making his professional debut in May 1998.
After six seasons with the Lions, Cahill moved to English Premier League club Everton, where he spent eight years and played 278 matches, scoring 68 goals and becoming a globally recognised star.
His club career then took him across the Atlantic, where he plied his trade in Major League Soccer for the New York Red Bulls club, before shifting to Chinese football with stints at Shanghai Shenhua and most recently, Hangzhou Greentown.
Cahill made his international debut for Australia in 2004 and has become one of the national team’s all-time greats with a record 47 goals.
He scored his country’s first ever FIFA World Cup goal in 2006, and first ever AFC Asian Cup goal the following year, and his five FIFA World Cup goals represent 45 per cent of the Socceroos’ all-time total,
Cahill is the only player in history to score at three FIFA World Cups and three AFC Asian Cups.