By Thomas Rooney
Tim Cahill has played 19 times for Australia and scored 10 goals along the way. He has become a mainstay in the national team and has help lead a new era of Australian players to a positive start in their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign. Overall, he is one of the most talented Australian footballers that there have been in recent years.
However, this isn’t quite enough for the Cahill. The 28-year-old has moved to open a development academy on the South Coast to help Australia produce more players with his talents in the future. However, it appears that this is just the start of his plans as he wants so open several similar academies around the country. This would give children, who wouldn’t have had the opportunity otherwise, the chance to make it as a professional footballer.
One of the main aims of this project, according to chief executive Chris Gardiner, is to ‘give parents confidence that there will be a quality training program available.’ As for Cahill himself, well he is very passionate about the reasons behind the whole project. He says that his own pathway to becoming a professional footballer was ‘extremely difficult’ and that he wants to make it easier for the talented young footballers of today.
This is certainly something that Cahill will be heavily involved in over the next few years. However, for now, he will be continuing to focus on his own career at Premier League side Everton. Speaking about Cahill the player, it has been a rather frustrating season for him so far. He has only played 4 Premier League games and only just made his comeback after a 3-game suspension following a red card against Liverpool.
However, there is no doubt he is still one of Everton’s most important players. The football odds are always more likely to favour an Everton win if Tim Cahill is part of their team. His goal scoring record as a midfielder has been excellent and the majority of online betting websites back him to grab a goal when previewing games.
Cahill’s short term aim will be to get back playing regularly for Everton and help them climb from their current position of 12th in the Premier League. His long term aim though, is to set up a number of academies around Australia to help produce players that could go on to be as successful as he has been in England.
