Patrick Beach has traded in Melbourne City and the A-League Men for Troyes and Ligue 1, while Paul Okon-Engstler has swapped Sydney FC for FC Cologne and the German top-flight. Nestory Irankunda will be playing UEFA Champions League football with Sporting CP in 2026-27, and he soon looks set to be joined in Portugal by Alessandro Circati, who has been heavily linked with a move to Benfica.
And then there's Lucas Herrington. One year ago, he was still on the books of Brisbane Roar having hardly begun his professional career, now he'll be lining up for Hull City in the Premier League when the new season begins this weekend.
Even without accounting for the rumours surrounding Mohamed Toure and Jordan Bos, Australia's best young talent appears to be having something of a moment. And it's helping to fuel a feeling that this is a major juncture for the local game, too.
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Because it's one thing to anticipate that a wave of Australia's most precocious taking the next step in their careers by making club moves in the wake of the FIFA World Cup, a tournament in which Tony Popovic repeatedly fielded the youngest XI that the Socceroos had ever sent out on that stage. But actually seeing it come to pass ... well, that takes it beyond the realm of theory. It makes it real.
Admittedly, it's important not to get too carried away. Transferring to a bigger club and a bigger league is momentous, but one still needs to seize the resulting opportunity to establish yourself. Football is littered with youngsters making much-ballyhooed moves, only to struggle and quickly be discarded by the hype machine. Keeping a sanguine view of matters is the most intellectually honest thing to do.
Yet those of an Australian bent couldn't look at these moves and not find reason for optimism, or, daresay, excitement, about it all, too. To deny that is to simply engage in cynicism for cynicism's sake. Because these are clubs in some of Europe's biggest leagues, with pressing needs or well-established reputations for talent identification, making significant investments in youthful Socceroos players, which is something that simply hasn't happened in recent decades.
Herrington's move is a case in point, because there's a sense that the young defender's move to Hull City represents a significant moment for Australian football. Never before has a club spent as much on an Australian teenager as the Tigers have for Herrington; a Premier League club, committing up to £17 million on an 18-year-old whose journey started at the Taringa Rovers and who arrived at the Roar as a 12-year-old in 2020. There are no small moves to the Premier League, especially for those that have just come off the back of becoming the youngest-ever man to represent their country at a World Cup.
Should he impress at that level, and the likes of Irankunda, Circati, Beach and Okon-Engstler do so at their new homes, the reputation of the current generation of Australian talent can only be boosted, removing some of the stigma surrounding their abilities on the market. This, in turn, will only benefit the Socceroos; both because the players at its disposal are taking their football and physical levels to new heights as they're tested against the world's best and because it only makes green-and-gold pedigree even more attractive in football's transfer market.
We've seen an increasing number of young Aussies head overseas in recent times, largely thanks to a combination of the A-League's austerity-driven youth push giving them opportunities to play, and said austerity not providing much incentive to stick around. But they've often done so on deals representing very little outlay for their new clubs, as with recent history suggesting few Australian talents were capable of making the jump, players moved for relatively small fees or even as free agents, rather than commanding the sums that demand a return on their investment.
This current window, however, suggests a sea change is afoot, one that will only swell if the current group kick on. Look at Asian rivals Japan, for instance, who despite also still looking for a first ever knockout stage win at World Cup have now firmly established a European reputation; recent reports from Poland suggesting that UEFA Conference League aspirants Górnik Zabrze are targeting youth international Taiga Seguchi before he's even made his debut for Vissel Kobe -- recognising they need to move before larger clubs price them out, but confident enough in J1 League pathways to commit to the player.
One only needs to look at the MLS to see this cascading effect, too, with Herrington's former home of Colorado now having sent him, Moïse Bombito (Nice) and Auston Trusty (Arsenal, now Celtic) overseas, and the league as a whole sending talent -- for decent fees -- to Europe. Australian talent is also increasingly looking to America as both a destination and stepping stone, with World Cup Socceroos Aiden O'Neill and Kai Trewin at New York City FC, Kye Rowles at D.C. United, and reigning A-League Golden Boot winner Luka Jovanović recently sealing a move to the San Jose Earthquakes, among others.
And while Hull's moves for Greece international and Olympiacos goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis and Senegal defender Nobel Mendy mean Herrington won't represent a record purchase, a club such as Hull doesn't spend that much money -- at a time when they're seeking to maximise on-field returns in a bid to stave off relegation -- to stash a player for later. And that's important for the teen.
As evidenced by their addition of Herrington and then Mendy, Hull needed urgent defensive reinforcement if they're to retain any hope of remaining a Premier League side come the end of 2026-27. Despite going up via the playoffs, they shipped 66 goals in the Championship last term, with only Queens Park Rangers and relegated duo Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday conceding more. Indeed, if the league table was decided by Opta's expected points tool, the volume and quality of chances that Hull allowed would have had them finishing second-bottom and being relegated last season.
This means that while Herrington will have to spend some time adjusting to a much higher level than he's ever been exposed to before, as well as earn the right to start in a unit featuring Mendy, Charlie Hughes, John Egan, Semi Ajayi, and Paddy McNair, there's not an unrealistic pathway to regular football. Hull needs good defenders, and he's raw, but also a good defender. This is especially so with Hughes likely to miss the start of the season as he continues his comeback from a hernia operation.
And therein lies another of the major drivers of positivity Down Under surrounding Herrington's move. Because while the actual number of Australians on the books of clubs competing in Europe's major leagues is larger than you'd think when accounting for those working their way through academies -- goalkeeper Steven Hall at Brighton & Hove Albion and son-of-a-gun Marcus Neill at Sunderland are Premier League examples -- starters are rarer.
Even if Hull fail to defy the odds and go straight back down, Herrington is of the age wherein a strong showing in the world's most competitive league should place him in good standing to remain at the level, with rival clubs able to use his year with the Tigers as an acid test of his abilities at this level before they move for him.
And while the obvious long-term goal for Australian football should be for its players to become somewhat ubiquitous at the top levels, to the extent that it starts to lose some of its novelty, the big picture is invariably made up of the smaller ones that get you there.
Given the near-universal praise for his mentality that Herrington received from his coaches and teammates throughout the World Cup -- skipper Harry Souttar summing him up as "unbelievable" -- and the way he's carried himself since becoming such a hot commodity, it's likely that the 18-year-old is aware of the hard work that will be required in the months and years ahead, too.
That's another reason for cautious optimism; this is a kid, by all accounts, that has a mindset built for the top level.