Massimo Luongo enjoyed an outstanding 2023 with Ipswich Town. Stuart Watson spoke to the Australian about his recent decision to retire from international football and the Championship promotion race.
Massimo Luongo feels content that his international career with Australia ended on his own terms.
The midfielder was a member of the Socceroos squad at the 2014 and 2018 World Cups. In between that, after starring during the Asian Cup winning campaign of 2015, he was named on the long list for the Ballon d'Or.
Injuries dogged him following a move to Sheffield Wednesday in 2019 though and the call-ups for his country stopped. A rejuvenating year at Ipswich Town saw him finally earn a recall in September following a near five-year absence.
The 31-year-old, having taken his number of caps to 45 with appearances against New Zealand and Bangladesh, was all set to go to the Asian Cup in Qatar this month. Instead, he announced he was putting all his energies into club rather than country from this point on.
“I think me having about five years out, with injuries and such, I sort of always thought ‘I’ve done that and it was brilliant for me, if I get called up again, great, and if I don’t I’ll just move on and focus on my club career'. There was a feeling in my belly that it wasn’t really my choice though.
“Obviously I did get called up again and it was brilliant. But I’ve got a young family now and the kids are a bit older and they miss me when I'm away. Suddenly, I’m not playing as much as I’d like to for them and I’m away from my family for days or weeks at a time.
“I think it was a good time for me to just call it now and be able to relax and not stress about it. I can focus on my football here, my club football going forward, my family and just support them as I’ve always done. I was able to go out how I wanted to.”
Asked if a fear of losing his place in a Town team flying high at the top end of the Championship table had played its part in his decision, Luongo replied: “Yes and no. I think coming back (from the Asian Cup in February) and having to catch up with everyone was in my head a little bit. I think I’m at that age where I can’t afford to come off the gas at all, especially for this manager.
“I’ve been to two Asian Cups – I played the first one (in 2015), I didn’t play the second one (2019). The one I played, I came back and, though I was young, I was exhausted by the end of the season. My body just wasn’t what it was at the start of the season. The second one, when I wasn’t playing, I came back unfit.
"If I went away for four or five weeks, whatever it is, I don’t play, we don’t really train, and I come back and I’m having to catch up for at least a week, let’s say, maybe two weeks... In those two weeks, who knows, they (Ipswich) could have brought in a midfielder and the boys could be flying. I’d be happy to do my part in that scenario but I don’t think I could do my part off the bench if I wasn’t fully fit."
Having not played a single minute for Middlesbrough during a three-month spell, Luongo arrived on trial at Ipswich just before Christmas 2022. After proving his fitness, he signed a short-term deal and, come February, had established himself in the team. Fast forward less than a year and his starting record in a team that is pushing for back-to-back promotions into the Premier League reads an incredible W24 D8 L2.
“I think teams are levelling out now," said Luongo, whose highest Championship finish has been 12th with QPR (15/16).
"You see Southampton are coming up – they’re on fire at the moment – and Leeds, Leicester are there. The teams that you would have probably said pre-season would be up there are up there.
“We’re probably the dark horses a little bit. There are clubs in the top six that would have been on someone’s automatic promotion list – West Brom, Sunderland and teams like that.
“It’s a tough league and always has been. My experience of this division is that getting into the top six and top two is so damned hard. Staying there, I’ve been told, is even harder and you can feel the other teams coming from behind and trying to catch us up.
"It’s just up to us to be just as good every week and keep the consistency up.”
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