Surprise Gulum selection in Socceroos squad

Turkish-based Australian Ersan Gulum was a surprise selection in Holger Osieck’s 50-man provisional Socceroos squad for the Asian Cup.

The details of the squad were meant to remain under wraps, but were leaked by the Asian Football Confederation on Wednesday and spread like wildfire online.

Chief among the talking points was the selection of 23-year-old central defender Gulum, whowas called up to the Turkish national squad by former Australia coach Guus Hiddink for their friendly against the Netherlands in November.

Because of his parent’s heritage, Gulum is eligible to play for both Turkey and Australia, the country of his birth. But by having no involvement in the friendly against the Dutch he is not tied to the Turks and Osieck has seized the moment to include the young defender.

Speaking in 2009, Gulum – who plies his trade for Besiktas in the Turkish Super Lig – said he would dearly love a call up for the Australians, who he represented at Under-23 level.

“I was born and raised in Australia. I feel more at home in Australia than I do in Turkey. Even though I am Turkish, I still feel like an outsider – that’s how they treat you sometimes – so my first choice is playing for Australia,” he said.

“My first priority is Australia, because they were the first country to call me.”

Gulum, however, had reportedly become increasingly disappointed with a lack of contact while former Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek was in charge.

Other surprises in the 50-man squad were the inclusion of brothers Joel and Ryan Griffiths, who were left out in the cold when Verbeek was at the helm.

Joel is a striker for Chinese Super League outfit Beijing Guoan, while Ryan has just joined Australian A-League side Newcastle.

The preliminary squad will be trimmed to 23 on December 28.

The 50-man squad:-

Adam Federici, Bradley Jones, Eugene Galekovic, Mark Schwarzer, Mitchell Langerak, Nathan Coe, Michael Theoklitos, Adrian Madaschi, Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, David Carney, Jason Davidson, Luke Devere, Ersan Gulum, Jonathan Mckain, Lucas Neill, Luke Wilkshire, Michael Thwaite, Michael Beauchamp, Jade North, Sasa Ognenovski, Matthew Spiranovic, Matthew Thompson, Adam Sarota, Brett Emerton, Brett Holman, Carl Valeri, Christopher Herd, Harry Kewell, Jason Culina, Benjamin Kantarovski, Neil Kilkenny, Matthew McKay, Mile Jedinak, Aaron Mooy, Oliver Bozanic, Richard Garcia, Thomas Oar, Dario Vidosic, David Williams, Archie Thompson, Alex Brosque, Joel Griffiths, Joshua Kennedy, Brent McGrath, Nathan Burns, Nikita Rukavytsya, Robbie Kruse, Ryan Griffiths, Scott McDonald, Tim Cahill.