Craig Foster is spent. After nearly three months of spearheading the campaign to save the life of Hakeem al-Araibi, flying between Sydney, Bangkok and Zurich to lobby for his freedom, the former Socceroo has finally hit the wall. Turns out there is a bottom to those seemingly endless reserves of energy.

"I can't recall ever being this tired," Foster says. "Right at this point in time, as we sit here, I'm absolutely no use to anyone. When you say 'I'm dead', which is a very Australian saying, I know what it means now."

Mission accomplished: Craig Foster and Hakeem al-Araibi soak in the moment at Pascoe Vale's first game of the NPL Victoria season. Paul Jeffers

Foster looks it, too, as he sips a soy latte at his favourite cafe in Randwick. But the man many have pegged as the next Australian of the Year certainly isn't sounding it as he reflects on what must have been the most gruelling but rewarding experience of his life, talking with the same rapid-fire intensity and passion which has long been his hallmark.

"The thing was, I'd never conducted a campaign like this. It was just organic," he says. "We were making it up as we went along. I was very, very concerned that if we lost momentum, we'd lose Hakeem.

"That meant in the middle of the night, waking up, sending tweets and on social media, being able to engage people was absolutely critical.

"I was just up all hours of the night and day just continually trying to keep it going, because I was very fearful something would come along which was a bigger scandal and Australia, football and others would move on."

Welcome home: Craig Foster and Hakeem al-Araibi at the refugee footballer's return to Melbourne last month. AAP

Foster was remarkably juggling study for his university exams at the same time. He is in the final year of a bachelor's degree in law which he started when he was still playing professional football.

"I was trying to keep up on the flights to Bangkok, to Europe and back. They were my rest times, but I couldn't take the opportunity to rest. It was nine hours of straight study," he says.

So, understandably, Foster collapsed both physically and mentally when he came home with al-Araibi in tow - but not before capping off the whirlwind experience with a visit to Canberra to meet Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and then an emotional homecoming to al-Araibi's club, Pascoe Vale.

As he takes a much-needed extended breather, the big question for Foster is: what's next for him? Australian football, the cause to which he has devoted his entire life, should be asking itself the same thing.

The culture of the game at the moment is horrible. It's been anti-football for a long time - by that I mean everything but football first. Craig Foster

In bringing together a coalition of like-minded human rights activists to work within a tangled web of international stakeholders - among them FIFA, the IOC, foreign governments and royal families - Foster provided the perfect riposte to the forces which prevented his election to the Football Federation Australia board last year.

It must be said that Foster, a long-time sports presenter and football analyst on SBS, is not everyone's cup of tea. His brand of punditry - intelligent, articulate but often perceived as snobbish - can rub people the wrong way. He can occasionally cross the line, coming across as arrogant to supporters of other sports and to those within football to whom he is philosophically opposed.

As a player, his unionist tendencies sometimes bothered teammates, most notably when he led a rebellion of Socceroos in a pay dispute at the 1997 Confederations Cup. To others, it endeared him.

Foster is a sort of Rorschach test for the game - you might see him as a pompous self-promoter, or the sort of visionary ideologue who should be running the show, or something in between.

Rejected: Craig Foster's Southern Expansion A-League bid was unsuccessful. Robert Peet

His single-mindedness, arguably his greatest strength, is probably also his biggest flaw. But unlike many in the game, you don't have to question where his heart lies.

Over the last 12 months, Foster's stocks have risen significantly. It started with his strident defence of Lucy Zelic, who attracted vicious criticism on social media for her pronunciation habits during the SBS coverage of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Foster's advocacy for his co-presenter went viral, and a new audience began to learn of his ways.

After years of preaching from the public broadcaster's studios, he then sought to get involved himself. But the A-League expansion bid he was part of, Southern Expansion, was unsuccessful, and so too was his candidacy to replace Steven Lowy as chairman of FFA.

Foster ran on a platform of transparency and independence, vowing to put football at the heart of all his decision making. But he says it became apparent within a week that he would not garner enough votes to get on the board - despite being overwhelmingly the people's choice.

Insiders at the time said it was because he was seen as 'divisive' and unable to function in a collaborative environment. Many doubted whether he had the requisite skills. They would have had him in the room, sitting on the board, but absolutely not as the chairman. His critics, most of whom were unwilling to speak on the record, feel largely the same way.

Foster ultimately withdrew from the race. In retrospect, and in light of his brilliant work in the al-Araibi campaign, it looks like a big missed opportunity.

"The election process was far too heavily influenced by major stakeholders, including some of the states and the professional clubs," Foster says. "My concern was that it was about gaining control, and that decisions post-election may have already been made.

"I'm not the type of person who is wanted by the stakeholders at this point in time, and that should concern everyone, because that's exactly what we should have. The culture of the game at the moment is horrible. It's been anti-football for a long time - by that I mean everything but football first."

It wasn't the first time Foster has been in the frame for an official role at FFA. Before the election, he had lunch with Socceroos coach Graham Arnold to discuss whether he would be interested in becoming the country's technical director.

The world game: Les Murray and Craig Foster. Ryan Pierse

He said no, because he would have had to report to another FFA employee - giving him no real autonomy in what should be the most important pure footballing position at the federation.

Foster has also considered becoming a professional coach, having studied to obtain his Pro Licence and winning rave reviews for his work at junior age levels in NSW in recent years. "I just feel that it's also restricting," he says.

"I've thought very deeply about it in the last 18 months, (but) the problem is I can't advocate for Indigenous Australia, or asylum seekers, or try and encourage policy to take Australia as a country where I want it to go.

"You work for a club and that's all you can do. I'm 50 this year and I want to make a contribution to the country. Therefore, I can't do it."

After helping to save al-Araibi, Foster was again offered the chance to become an appointed director on the FFA board. He said no.

"There's absolutely no way in the world that I was, or am, going to sit on the board (and be) compliant in decisions being made that I don't think are in the best interests of the game," he said. "I still dream. I will never, ever give up hope for the game - ever. I do intend to work inside the national governing body at some point.

"I've got hopefully 25 years of good working life left. In that time I want to see Australia reach its potential in football, or at least have the structure in place, and I do think it's going to require a strong voice who people trust."

Having tried and failed to enact change through the political structures of Australian football, Foster may well find it a whole lot easier to navigate the political structures of Canberra. He has been sounded out a number of times to run for the other election - the Federal one in May. The real one.

"I always thought there would come a time when I would step into politics," Foster says. "There's been a number of approaches. I certainly haven't ruled it out, because I do think the campaign demonstrated there is a void in Australian public life for people that we can believe in.

"If I can play some role in that, I'd be delighted."

Football's loss might just prove to be the nation's gain.