The new Michael Owen? Australia starlet Nestory Irankunda announces himself in style with fabulous World Cup goal

Nestory Irankunda celebrates scoring Australia's first goal of the 2026 World Cup.

Even in 2026, the World Cup still has the capacity to introduce fans to exciting young players they may never have run across before.

Nestory Irankunda needs no introduction to Watford fans, of course, having played 35 Championship games for them last season after joining from Bayern Munich last summer.

But the winger made his name known around the world as he finished off a wonderful finish to put Australia ahead in their Group D game against Turkiye.

Nestory Irankunda scores sensational Australia goal

Nestory Irankunda skinned a defender before wrong-footing the goalkeeper (Image credit: Getty Images)

That 27th-minute goal came against the run of play, with much of the game until that point seeing Turkey working to try and break down a stubborn Australia defence.

It was just beginning to feel game-ruiningly conservative from Aussie boss Tony Popovic - but the wisdom of that rope-a-dope approach was made vividly clear by Irankunda's goal on the counter-attack.

The Tanzanian-born 20 year old has been playing senior football for the Socceroos since he was 18 - the same summer that he caught the eye of Bayern scouts following an impressive couple of seasons for Adelaide United.

Irankunda is blessed with absolutely incredible pace and a low centre of gravity that makes him difficult to get off the ball.

But he also showed off just how good his technique is on his way to putting Australia 1-0 to the good.

Irankunda raced onto Paul Okon-Engstler's ball over the top of the Turkiye defence, cut inside a defender with a square touch through a defender and into the box, and sent the goalkeeper totally the wrong way with an unintuitive finish to the near bottom corner.

There was more than a touch of Michael Owen's goal against Argentina in 1998 about it.

Unstoppable pace 😮‍💨Watford's Nestory Irankunda shows off his incredible speed to give Australia the lead against Turkey... pic.twitter.com/fHyh4qAuslJune 14, 2026

Australia's next game at the World Cup comes on Friday, June 19 as they head to Seattle to take on co-hosts the United States of America.

Their final game will come seven days later, against Paraguay, in San Francisco.

Australia have been ever-present at the World Cup since 2006, twice making it through the group stage to reach the round of 16 in the previous 32-team format.