Tim Cahill’s participation in next year’s World Cup finals is uncertain after the Socceroos striker and his A-League club, Melbourne City, announced they have mutually agreed to part ways.

Cahill, Australia’s all-time leading goalscorer, leaves the club on his 38th birthday, in the middle of the domestic season and with just six months to go before the tournament in Russia kicks off.

Cahill has scored 50 goals in 104 national appearances, and said his focus will now be on retaining his place in the Socceroos squad and playing at a fourth World Cup. Presumably, that means finding a club as soon as possible.



Yet his next move remains unknown, with Adelaide United’s general manager of football Ante Kovacevic saying he would discuss with coach Marco Kurz the possibility of luring Cahill to South Australia. However, it is more likely he will head overseas, most probably to the Middle East, to find the match minutes he craves.

Cahill, who has been used sparingly by City coach Warren Joyce this season and started just one match, indicated after he helped Australia to World Cup qualification in their intercontinental playoff win over Honduras last month that he needed regular playing time if he was to make the plane to Russia.

“Qualifying for the World Cup has been a great adventure, and it would be a massive honour to represent my country in Russia,” he said. “That will be my focus in the coming months.”

What happens to Cahill during that period is sure to be of interest to whoever takes on the Socceroos’ coaching position. Football Federation Australia said on Tuesday it had appointed a panel to decide who will succeed Ange Postecoglou by February.

There remains a certain reliance on Cahill for goals at international level, and it was the veteran’s brace against Syria in the Asian qualifying playoff that kept alive the Socceroos’ hopes of reaching Russia.

The former Everton player, who started his senior career at Millwall and later had spells in the US with New York Red Bulls and in China with Shanghai Shenhua and Hangzhou Greentown, joined City on a three-year contract at the start of the 2016-17 season.



Having scored in his first game back in Australia – an FFA Cup tie – his A-League career then started with a bang as he scored one of the goals of the season – a spectacular long-range effort in the Melbourne derby on his league debut. He went on to add a further 12 goals to his tally, none this season, before his shock departure.

He helped City win the club’s first piece on silverware – the FFA Cup in 2016 – but his time back in his country of birth was also marked by injury and, at times, controversy. He was sent off before entering the field of play in another Melbourne derby in February this year and one of his goal celebrations against Syria in October raised eyebrows.

Speculation over Cahill’s club career has been rife recently with Joyce forced last month to dismiss suggestions of a rift between the pair as “just tittle-tattle”.

Cahill said having the opportunity to play in Australia had always been an important career goal and that the experience “has been fulfilling from start to finish”.

“The welcome from fans, the quality of the facilities and the ever-increasing quality of football continues to be a source of immense pride,” Cahill said.

He leaves with City sitting in third place on the A-League ladder, six points off pacesetting Sydney FC.

Joyce said he was grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Cahill over the past 15 months. “Having players of Tim’s stature in the dressing room can only help develop a squad’s ambitions, and his impact on the team and for the club is well known, particularly with the younger players in the squad,” he said.

“In the period that I’ve worked with Tim, I have appreciated the contribution he has made both on and off the field and the dedication he has shown in training. We all wish him the very best on the next stage of his career.”