Martin Boyle: Hibs & Australia forward on World Cup, Lionel Messi & Panini stickers
- Published
Martin Boyle helped Australia reach the World Cup after a play-off win over Peru
In kick-starting the glorious turbulence of his life in 2022, Martin Boyle travelled light when he flew from Edinburgh to Melbourne in January.
Believing he'd be coming home to Hibernian after his work with the Australian national team was done, he packed one tee-shirt and four pairs of boxers and headed for the airport.
Within days he was en-route to Harmah City in Saudi Arabia. New country, new club (Al-Faisaly), new clothes required in a hurry. Six months later, he was back at Hibs.
In the time in between, he played international matches in Muscat, Sydney, Jeddah and Qatar. He helped Australia qualify for the World Cup in June, scored the equaliser in the Edinburgh derby with the last kick of the game in August and became a father again in September.
Currently, he's in Brisbane preparing to play against New Zealand on Thursday. Come the weekend, he'll be in Auckland for a second game against the Kiwis. By that time, he will have done, by our reckoning, more than 62,000 miles since the beginning of the most eventful year of his life.
"A bit of a whirlwind," he says, which is something of an understatement.
Boyle does a nice line in self-mocking humour - he calls himself the class clown and the most immature person in his house - but his story is the stuff of dreams. It's actually beyond a dream. Growing up in Aberdeen, he never dreamed this big.
Playing in a World Cup? "Impossible," he says. That was for the original Ronaldo and Ronaldinho and all those other heroes he used to watch on television. His childhood land of make-believe had borders. At the age of 29, he's about to crash through them.
The other week, himself and daughter Amelia left Asda with the Panini World Cup book and six shiny new packets of stickers. They took turns to open them up, each new discovery greeted with an ooh and an aah.
"We were on the fifth packet and I saw Australia in the corner of the one coming up and I got a bit excited, but it was Aaron Mooy (now of Celtic)," he admits. "There was another sticker in underneath and it was me. Mental. I was buzzing. Amelia was buzzing. My wife Rachael (a Scotland international) was buzzing.
"I mean, this is something I did as a kid. Now myself and Amelia are doing it together. I'm guessing Cristiano Ronaldo's not doing Panini, but I love it. Imagine Messi doing it and getting me. He's ripping it up, isn't he? 'Who's this fraud?'"
Redmayne's 'a hero who saved me'
Boyle talks as he plays, with a speed and a madcap nature that's entertaining, but he grows serious when he speaks of the night Australia qualified for the World Cup in a play-off with Peru. That stuff will live with him for the rest of his days.
Level after 120 minutes, Boyle was first up in the penalty shoot-out. He was calm approaching the spot. All week in training he'd been drilling them hard to the right of his goalkeepers - Matty Ryan and Andrew Redmayne - and not once had either of them denied him.
His mind could not have been clearer. He hit the same penalty, but with a different outcome. Saved.
"He'd done his homework, the goalie. You want the ground to swallow you up. My family were there. It was their first time watching me represent Australia. My wife was pregnant, but she came out. They're all watching.
"The walk back to the halfway line was the slowest walk of all time. I don't know what was going through my mind, I was just blank. Or maybe I was thinking, 'I've just knocked us out of the World Cup. What would have been the pinnacle of everybody's career and I've bottled it'.
Martin Boyle has scored three times in six games since returning to Hibs
"I remember being down in the squatting position the whole time after that. Just hyperventilating. Then Peru missed and I came to life again."
Redmayne had replaced Ryan just for the shoot-out and his bonkers antics on the line have now gone down in legend in Australia. Ultimately, it was Redmayne who got Australia through to the World Cup.
"I saw him jumping about and I'm saying to myself, 'What are you doing? I don't need this mate. Please be serious. Help me'. And he did. I don't know where it all came from. Normally, he's a plank of wood.
"You get nothing out of him. Goalkeepers! Nobody likes them, let's be honest. A different breed. Growing up with balls smashed at you. Come on.
"I roomed with him in Jeddah and I said, 'How am I rooming with a goalkeeper?' He sleeps with the lights on. He's gone, just like that. Like a mummy. He's a top-class guy though. A hero who saved me. I'll be forever in his debt."
'This year is going to be a lovely blur'
So now he's got World Cup games with France, Tunisia and Denmark to look forward to. He's imagined what it would be like to be in the tunnel looking across at Karim Benzema and Kylian Mbappe. "I don't think they'll be looking back. If I'm selected, I'll be like a boy in a toy shop."
The year is going by in a lovely blur, he says. His experience in Saudi was short-lived but eye-opening. A story to tell the children.
For part of it, because of Ramadan, he trained and played at midnight, went to bed at eight in the morning, woke at five in the evening. He went from dark to dark. When he returned to Edinburgh, people wondered why he didn't have a tan.
He doesn't regret going - playing in the Asian Champions League is a pretty cool thing to have on the CV - but was glad to return to his spiritual home. The family stayed behind in Edinburgh and he missed them. FaceTime has its uses and its limits.
Hibs is where he belongs. You only have to listen to him for five minutes to realise it. He's six games into his second spell and has three goals to his name already, the pick of them being on the day the prodigal returned and sickened Hearts with that late goal at Easter Road.
"At 8pm on the Saturday, I got the call from the club that my international clearance had come through and that I'd be on the bench the next day. No training, no idea of the way we were playing.
"I'd just smashed macaroni and chips. It was the first time I've ever been nervous playing a game. Butterflies took over. I know there's expectations on me. There was a buzz in the club when I came back and I have to live up to that."
He tells a story about Amelia and Hibs' game against St Mirren in Paisley in August, a 1-0 home win that had the Easter Road players, manager and supporters all dismayed at the paucity of their performance.
"After a loss, I used to be straight in the car, no music, down the road, sit on the sofa, no chat. If we lose now, my daughter doesn't know any different. She's happy as Larry no matter what.
"She comes to the games and doesn't know if we've won or not. She went to St Mirren and saw a giant panda and was delighted. She makes you smile. Tomorrow's a new day, move on."
If that's his mantra then it's serving him well in his double life as Hibs winger and World Cup hopeful. Or Australia sticker number 16 to give him another title.
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