Four and a half years ago, when Graham Arnold began his current stint as head coach of the Socceroos, he and his staff organised their first training camp in the ancient coastal city of Antalya in Turkey.
On that occasion, 31 Australian players were called up, the largest contingent since preparations for the 2018 World Cup.
Some were joining camp for the first time or after years on the fringes: Awer Mabil, Bailey Wright, Mitch Duke, Ajdin Hrustic, Denis Genreau, Danny Vukovic, Jamie Maclaren.
Others, such as Aziz Behich, Jackson Irvine, Mile Jedinak, Tomi Juric, Robbie Kruse, Mark Milligan, Aaron Mooy, Mat Ryan and Trent Sainsbury were returning after playing a major role in the previous cycle.
Antalya was the perfect choice for what Arnold wanted this camp to be about.
Hugging the jewel-like Mediterranean sea, the city had been used as a major trading port during the Roman era and is today a vibrant hub of food and cultures and languages from all over the world.
These days, Antalya is a tourism hotspot, welcoming millions of visitors each year to its bright, red trams trundling down ancient streets and sleek yachts anchored in the centuries-old harbour.
It's a city that embraces the old and the new, and acts as a meeting-point for people who have travelled many long, winding roads to get there.
In among the fitness sessions and tactics discussions, the main purpose of the camp was to figure out one simple thing: who did the Socceroos want to be?
A new chapter of their story was about to begin, and Arnold wanted his players holding the pen.
"We did a team identity [exercise] when I first started," Arnold told ABC last week, "and it was the responsibility of the players to do, to come up with a team identity which covers the nation.
"So many of the players have been through different lives and hard ways, [but] we've all gelled together as one."
Over the course of the Turkey camp, this eclectic mix of young and old Socceroos got to know each other, sharing their own stories and their own paths to get to where they were. By the next camp in November, they had settled on the line that has now come to define them: Many journeys, one jersey.
From then on, this line has been visible in the team's innermost sanctums, printed on posters in meal and dressing rooms and used in inspirational video presentations before games.
It was there for the highs, such as the historic 11-game winning streak near the start of 2022 World Cup qualifying, to the lows of quarantine hotels, playing 16 of their 20 qualifiers away from home, and their tumble towards the intercontinental play-offs in June.
And it's here now, in the 26 players Arnold has chosen to represent Australia in Qatar: a team that, like Antalya, reflects the meeting-point of the past and the future, and the many winding roads they have all taken to get there.
Indeed, while each has their own journey in football, this team's stories really reflect the story of Australia itself.
There are stories such as that of Mitch Duke, who grew up in a large family in Sydney's western suburbs and who worked three jobs while trying to break into the A-League.
He was overlooked and underestimated for most of his career, but his persistence and passion for the game meant he never gave up.
Duke forged his own path in a foreign country, overcoming language barriers, major injuries and family stress, and has, finally, been rewarded for it.
He will now play at his first ever World Cup at the age of 32.
There are stories such as that of Ajdin Hrustic, a son of Serbian and Bosnian migrants who adored David Beckham and honed his free-kick talents against his garden shed in Melbourne.
He believed in himself so much that he skipped the A-League altogether and moved to Europe when he was a teenager to chase his dream.
A few years later, he was holding the Europa League trophy — the first Australian to ever do so — and has become an essential cog in the Socceroos' attacking machine.
Hrustic is part of a new generation of players for whom the World Cup remains the pinnacle of pride.
There are stories such as that of Aziz Behich, one of the last links between the Socceroos of the past and the Socceroos of the future.
A player whose struggles in Australia saw him make the leap to the land of his forefathers, Türkiye, where he stayed for several years, learning more about his culture, his family and his Muslim faith.
Now 31, Behich is passing down the lessons he's learned as a Socceroo over the past decade, and is one of the handful of players headed to their second World Cup, and all he wants to do is make his country proud.
There are stories such as Miloš Degenek, who was born in war-torn Yugoslavia and fled with his family to Australia when he was a boy.
He was one of the thousands of European migrants who found safety and opportunity here, and used football to reconnect with the scattered diaspora in Sydney's west.
Degenek's career took him all over the world, from his homeland of Serbia to Saudi Arabia, Germany and Japan but, while his club life has varied, his ultimate goal has always been trying to find a way to give back to the nation who gave him and his family a chance.
There are stories such as that of Jackson Irvine, whose career has been as much about figuring out who he is off the field as who he is on it.
After turning down an opportunity to represent Scotland in his youth, he's since become one of the Socceroos' most outspoken players, standing up for social causes such as LGBTQIA+ rights, refugees, environmentalism and migrant workers in Qatar.
Irvine helped organise Australia's recent public statement about the World Cup, calling for the decriminalisation of same-sex relationships and wants to use the tournament to talk about the intersection of sport and human rights.
And there are stories such as that of Thomas Deng, the first South Sudanese migrant — alongside childhood friend Awer Mabil — to represent the Socceroos.
Born in Kenya, Deng and his family settled in Adelaide and used football as a way of connecting with his new, alien country.
Despite flourishing in the A-League and captaining Australia at the youth level, he has still had to deal with racism and discrimination, based on the colour of his skin, but knows his presence in the green-and-gold opens doors to the next generation of African migrants for whom this country is, and has always been, home.
The squad is also the story of Graham Arnold himself: a coach who has had to evolve with the times as this new generation has entered the Socceroos family.
His choices for Qatar reflect the reservations as well as the risks that have defined his past four years at the helm: from loyalty to veterans who may not be at their peak but who he trusts to walk through fire for the team, to the gamble of young or emerging players he believes will carry them into their next chapter.
For the next few weeks, 26 individuals will step out onto the fields of Qatar and represent 26 million people back home in Australia.
They will represent a nation built on opportunity, on possibility, on hope. They will represent a nation of histories, communities, languages, struggles and stories. A nation of trying and failing and trying again.
A nation aware of its weaknesses as well as its strengths, which knows it is not the greatest but which always, deep down, believe it could be. A nation of doers, a nation of dreamers, a nation of hard work and helping hands. A nation that is forever changing, but which still maintains that thing — that feeling, that spirit, that identity, whatever you want to call it — that generations of Socceroos have embodied since the first team formed 100 years ago.
"It's been like that forever," Arnold said. "We had so many nationalities that came out and lived in Australia. They got their Australian passports and became Australian citizens. Our country gave them that chance.
"I think back to some great moments in time where you're playing against the nations where they were born. One memory is from 2006 when we played Croatia at the World Cup: We had Tony Popovic, Zjelko Kalac, Josip Skoko, Mark Viduka, all Croatian boys. And their determination to beat their home country was incredible.
"It's the Australian way, always having that passion. That badge on your heart. You see it with the team now: Jason Cummings coming here all the way from Scotland because he had a dream to play for Australia. He has that opportunity. It's the same as Garang Kuol.
"The reason I did the Olympic team was to help the kids. They're all from different nations, and we've had some that have gone through tragic things early in their lives. They've come to Australia as refugees and Australia has helped them pursue their passion.
"Awer Mabil has more tears in his eyes when he plays for Australia than probably most people who were born here. It's the gratitude to what our nation has done for them, for their families, for their communities.
"That's what Australia is. It's a multicultural nation. And the Socceroos are probably the biggest reflection of that."
Many journeys. One jersey.
