Jamshedpur FC

Kaiserslautern. Porto Alegre. Brisbane. These places not only significant to Tim Cahill's international career but also to Australia's modern footballing history. A big game player scored some important and emphatic goals in his 14 year long career for the Socceroos and tomorrow, the Sydney born forward bids adieu to what has been a glorious career.

Tim Cahill, 38, retires as the most capped outfield player in Australian football history and the country’s record goalscorer. For the Australian faithful he is renowned for rising high to head home at key moments, punching corner flags and relishing in the pride of playing for his country.

However, it wasn’t an easy beginning for Tim Cahill’s footballing career as he had been rejected by Sydney Olympic’s Youth League coach for the 1996 season due to his short size and his perceived lack of pace.

Also, due to representing the country of his mother's birth, Samoa at the U-14 level, Cahill had to wait for almost a decade to get clearances from FIFA to represent the Socceroos - the land that gave him all and to which he gave his all, every single time.

In his formative years, young Tim was selected for the Sydney United’s first-team squad in the NSW State League. But, after ten games, as things didn’t go as planned, Cahill decided to try his luck in England and the rest as they say is history.

His first stop was Millwall FC where from a footballing perspective, he developed his abilities and honed his goalscoring instincts. Cahill's ability to make space in the box, his work rate, his hang time in the air is what made him a success during his time in England.

His next stop in England came in the blue half of Merseyside, Everton, where, in the eight years he was at Goodison Park, he scored 56 goals across 226 appearances and was even named the club’s player of the season for 2004 - 05. In his first season at Everton, he scored 12 goals as the Toffees finished fourth in the Premier League which made them eligible for a crack at the Champions League in the following season. 

At the end of his tenure at the club, Cahill ended up as the second highest Premier League scorer in Everton’s history. Moreover, he was the club's highest post-war goalscorer in Merseyside derbies. Furthermore, only Dixie Dean had managed to score in more derbies at Anfield than Cahill, making him one of the most revered players for Everton in the modern era.

Cahill’s role as a talisman for his national side really came to the fore when Australia played their first group match in the 2006 World cup. Much to everyone’s surprise, Cahill was benched by manager Gus Hiddink against Japan. The Socceroos were 1-0 down as the game entered it's final half hour of action.

Hiddink then threw Cahill on as the last roll of the dice and the man duly delivered. He netted two goals in quick time, one of which was obviously a header which secured a 3-1 victory for the Socceroos. In the process, Cahill became the first Australian to score at a FIFA World Cup. He was also the first Australian to win a man of the match honour at the tournament.   

Cahill then went on to play in Australia’s next three matches at the tournament, including 90 minutes in the hardly fought Round of 16 defeat to Italy, who went on to win the most coveted prize in world football that year. His performance at the 2006 World Cup was one of the major building blocks to him being regarded as one of Australia’s all-time greats.

Australia qualified for every World Cup since 2006, an achievement that cannot be downplayed. Tim Cahill’s contributions both on and off the pitch were a huge part in Australia becoming a global footballing force.

Cahill's best moment in an Australian shirt came in the 2014 World Cup when he scored a sensational long-range left-footed volley against Netherlands. That goal was not only one of the best goals in that tournament, but it was also nominated for the Puskas award for goal of the year. The technique in smashing that ball to make it dip just under the crossbar was phenomenal and his trademark celebration was one to remember as well! 

Cahill also netted 3 goals in a successful Asian Cup campaign in 2015, including a bicycle kick against China in the quarterfinals that also won the goal of the tournament. The Asian Cup victory was Cahill's biggest achievement for the Australian national side, a tournament that brought an end to the country's previous disappointing performances in the competition.

All in all, Cahill scored 50 goals for the Socceroos, half of which were headed goals along with millions of memories for the Australian folks which ensured that the name of Timothy Filiga Cahill would forever remain in the Australian history books.

To put things into perspective, Cahill's international tally is still 21 goals better than the next highest scorer (Damian Mori), and the only current player who comes close is Mile Jedinak (20). Cahill had an uncanny ability to find big goals in big games for both club and country which made him a threat whenever he took the field.

Many of Cahill’s big moments in major tournaments have also been Australia’s best moments at tournaments. To sum his career up in a nutshell, Tim Cahill was a midfielder-turned-undersized-striker who transformed himself into Australia’s all-time leading goalscorer.

But it is easy to forget the hard work that has gone in and the sheer burden on his shoulders to be Australia’s main man and the sport's poster boy in the country for over a decade. The longevity of Tim Cahill’s playing career is testament to how hard he has trained and how much he has sacrificed, for so long, to extract every ounce of talent in order to maintain such record-breaking standards for the land he represented.

Jamshedpur FC applaud and bid farewell to a retiring champion, the greatest of all the Socceroos.