His dad is a former Socceroos captain, but Paul Okon jnr is no nepo baby

There are easier surnames to carry in Australian football than Okon.

Especially when you’re a young midfielder breaking into the Socceroos team. And especially when your father is on the coaching staff.

Paul Okon jnr has heard the whispers. That his pathway into the national team has been accelerated for reasons beyond his football. He doesn’t spend too much time thinking about them.

“Everyone has the right to their own opinion, and they have the right to express their own opinion,” the 21-year-old told this masthead. “I don’t pay much attention to the negativity. I just want to be the best footballer I can be, each and every day. It doesn’t bother me at all.”

Alex Baumjohann, who brought him to Sydney FC in his capacity as the A-League club’s sporting director, has heard the whispers, too.

He’s prepared to be a little more forceful.

“What I find annoying is every time I hear people speak about Junior as Paul Okon’s son, and he’s just in the Socceroos because of his dad being the assistant,” Baumjohann said.

“It’s not fair towards him. For me, it absolutely makes no sense.”

Okon snr’s reputation obviously precedes him. Widely regarded as one of the most intelligent, cultured midfielders Australia has ever produced, and a former Socceroos captain, he was likened in his pomp to Franz Beckenbauer. The only reason he is not a true household name is that injuries curtailed his career - which included stints with Club Brugge, Lazio, Fiorentina, Middlesbrough and Leeds United - at the wrong time, just before the Socceroos exploded into mainstream consciousness in 2005.

When Baumjohann speaks to overseas clubs about ‘Junior’, even they are acutely aware of his lineage. It’s only at home where it’s perceived as a problem, and only because ‘Senior’ is the number two to Socceroos coach Tony Popovic.

It all started when Popovic called him into a training camp mid-last year - before he’d joined Sydney FC, before he’d played even a minute of senior club football. Eyebrows were raised, even though he had long been identified as a player of huge potential, and the sort of deep-lying playmaker this country typically struggles to produce; he was a crucial part of the Young Socceroos’ victorious U-20 Asian Cup campaign, playing in every match and starting in all but one of them.

He was then included in the squad for June’s qualifiers against Japan and Saudi Arabia, in which Australia clinched their place at the World Cup, but didn’t make his debut until a few months later in a friendly against Venezuela. Last month, he earned his second and third caps, coming off the bench against Cameroon and Curacao, helping to swing both games the Socceroos’ way.

To Baumjohann, and pretty much every coach in the Australian game, the idea that he is in the mix for a World Cup spot for any reason other than his on-field performances is preposterous.

For starters, it suggests Popovic would cop being told who to pick, which ... obviously, no. No chance in hell.

And it also implies that Okon snr would treat his son differently to other players, which also isn’t the reality.

“It was a bit weird at the start, I’m not going to lie to you,” said Okon jnr “But I don’t have a father-son relationship while I’m in camp. He just looks at me as if he’s a coach, which he is. He tells me how it is, he’s honest with me. When it’s good, it’s good. When it’s not good, it’s not good.”

Baumjohann, of course, has a vested interest in talking Okon jnr up - but he only wanted to sign him in the first place because he could see what he could become with regular game time.

He is, in essence, a modern No.6: comfortable receiving under pressure, progressive with his passing, and increasingly authoritative in the tempo he sets. A chip off the old block, you might say.

Socceroos fans are excited about a future led by Nestory Irankunda, Jordan Bos and Alessandro Circati; Baumjohann reckons Okon jnr should be talked about just as much as they are.

“All the data shows that he has been one of the best Australian midfielders this season and he fully deserves to be in the Socceroos, regardless of who is the assistant coach or not,” he said.

“The ground he covers during games, his high speed, his size, him being left-footed, plus his character and his personality - he brings everything, has all the attributes and is a complete player. I really think a lot of things need to go wrong [for him to not] have a top career and in my opinion, he will be Australia’s future ... he is such a joy to work with and should definitely be at the World Cup. He is the most complete Australian player I have seen since I came here.”

Saturday night’s A-League derby against the Western Sydney Wanderers - where, incidentally, Okon jnr was once an academy player - could very well be his last. He signed a three-year contract with the Sky Blues, but there’s next to no chance he will see it out given the level of interest in him from abroad.

He credits his father for teaching him the fundamentals of the game, honed in the backyard of their Cecil Hills home with his three younger brothers, but was too young to watch him play, and has only seen clips and highlights.

“I’ve looked at some videos and stuff he sent me, like, just a bit of banter: ‘Can you do this? Look at this goal I scored,’” he said.

“He obviously pushed me and my brothers in the direction of football, but it was always up to us how much effort we wanted to put into it, how much we loved the game and we wanted to give into it. He always gave us the option that you don’t have to be a footballer, but if you are going to be a footballer, I want you to put 100 per cent into it and give everything.”

Yes, you read correctly: there are three other Okon brothers, and they can all play.

Gianluca, 17, is a midfielder who Baumjohann says “all of Europe” wants to sign. He’s another midfielder who is in the academy of Club Brugge, as Paul jnr once was - but he plays for Italy’s junior national teams, and it remains to be seen if he’ll wear green and gold as well.

Then there is Alessandro, 12, and Davide, 10, still to come.

“Just can’t wait to see what they do,” Okon jnr said.

Whatever comes next for himself, Okon jnr seems prepared, having already gotten a taste of the “dog-eat-dog world” of European football through his teenage years. Helpfully, he speaks three other languages: Italian, which was spoken in the family home growing up, Flemish, which he learned while in Belgium, and Portuguese, likewise from his time in Benfica’s academy and reserves team.

He could have stayed in Europe this season, but wanted to test himself against men, at senior level - and Sydney FC offered the best opportunity to do just that.

“It’s been everything that I’ve wanted it to be and more,” Okon jnr said.

“I’ve been quite fortunate to come to a club like Sydney FC and I’m very grateful for what they’ve done for me. I just want to repay them by giving them a trophy and winning as many games as possible.”

Now the World Cup is hovering tantalisingly on the horizon, almost within reach. His old man never got to play in one. ‘Junior’ is desperate to get there, but he knows he still has a lot to learn, and that he can’t turn his focus away from what’s in front of him.

“Everyone wants to be in that squad. It’s normal,” he said. “But I know that I can only do that by performing with my club ... improving as a player and as a person every day on this training pitch, and performing on the weekend, because that’s what matters at the moment. Going to the World Cup would be a reward for all that hard work.”