These semi-pros are changing the face of international football

The closest Wade Dekker ever expected to get to playing international football for Sri Lanka was at his grandma's house during "curry-curry night".

He and his cousins would take the field for an all-star match-up.

"We were in the backyard, Sri Lanka vs Australia or Sri Lanka vs Brazil," Dekker said.

He was born in Melbourne to a Sri Lankan mum, who moved here when she was 12, and an Australian dad with Dutch heritage.

His backyard pipedreams became a reality at 30 when he earned his first cap for Sri Lanka, 10 years after making his professional debut for Melbourne City.

After two seasons in the A-League, Dekker has spent the second half of his career as a prolific scorer in the Victorian NPL for the Oakleigh Cannons and now Dandenong Thunder.

He is one of several semi-professionals playing in their state-based second-tier competitions who have found their way into representing less-established footballing nations through family ties.

Chance encounter

After seeing a video posted online by Dandenong Thunder teammate Gavin De Niese talking about making his way into the Sri Lankan national team, Dekker knew he had to speak to him.

"I literally went to training that night and I was like, 'Dude, I'm Sri Lankan!'" he said.

De Niese made the connection with the football federation, and Dekker's unexpected journey started.

"[They] contacted me the next day and then from there were able to start the process and sort out my visa and shipping my passport."

The Sri Lankan national team is unique, with players ranging from A-League veteran Jack Hingert to players lacing their boots up in the Victorian second division (VPL) like Barath Suresh.

"There's this unity and camaraderie because … everyone's humble and everyone just [wants] the best for the country," Dekker said.

Last-minute call-up

Although lining up on opposite sides of the pitch in the NPL, there is one thing that both Dekker and Jamal Ali share in their careers — the chaos of planning for an international window.

The late scheduling, the plane tickets being emailed the day before the flight, and the struggle of organising work while living out your childhood dreams.

Born in Sudan to Eritrean parents, Ali was introduced to the Sudanese national team by fellow NPL Victorian player Kenjok Athiu.

After two years of conversations with coaches and officials, Ali finally got to make his debut in early 2025.

"They pretty much just emailed me the ticket the day before I was meant to fly, and I didn't know anything about it," Ali said.

With a flight scheduled for Thursday night, Ali faced a problem — his NPL side, Heidelberg United, was set to play rivals Preston Lions on Friday night.

After some frantic phone calls, Ali managed to change his flight so he could play and score for Heidelberg, then hastily made it to Saudi Arabia for the Sudanese team camp.

Ali, who works as a centre manager at a YMCA, also had to get the all clear from work with only a day's notice. And it came with a condition: he just needed to be available for emails while he was away.

He says the whirlwind experience still "blows his mind".

"I'm in the hotel room, we've got training in the mornings, in the evenings, and gym, and in between I was just smashing out some emails," he said.

It has been a year to remember for Ali, making a national team debut, winning the NPL Victoria with Heidelberg, and a fairytale Australia Cup run.

But he still wants to achieve another major milestone — making the squad for the upcoming African Cup of Nations in Morocco. It is the first time Sudan has qualified for the tournament since 2021.

Emotional reconnection

There are now many players scattered across Australia's lower leagues who represent national teams around the world.

One of the first to do so for the South Sudan national team, founded in 2011, was Peter Deng, who is currently unattached to a club.

Although his younger brother, Thomas Deng, is a Socceroo, for much of the siblings' adolescence, they would have described themselves as stateless, with no passport or a country that claimed them.

Born to South Sudanese parents in Kenya and moving to Australia eventually as a refugee, Deng did not possess legal citizenship anywhere until he eventually received his Australian citizenship in 2003.

Having never spent time in South Sudan before joining the national team, Deng's understanding of the country was limited to the stories and memories his mum had passed down.

"To get the call from my national team, my country of origin was very, very, very emotional actually," he said.

It also gave him the opportunity to travel to the country for the first time in 2016.

Having lost his father as a teenager, he was able to visit the places his dad had spent time throughout his youth.

"It was an opportunity to reconnect to my roots, and to do it through something that I love was even better," Deng said.

"In three years [playing for the national team], I got to experience what life was like for my family, my community, my ancestors."

With a diaspora scattered across the world, there was a unique opportunity to learn and understand the varying cultures at the team camps.

"We've had all these different experiences, whether it's those that were living maybe in Khartoum, those living mainly in Dubai and rural areas, and then those living out in the West, and I think that sense of culture and community was still intact," he said.

It may not have been the exact dream Dekker had during "curry-curry night," but it has become a reality for so many scattered across Australia's lower leagues.