'Biggest mystery in football': Rogic future confounds closest confidants

Tom Rogic has emerged as the Scarlet Pimpernel of Australian football, with only a vapour trail left in his wake amid burning questions over where to next for the absentee Socceroo.

Just as the main protagonist in Baroness Orczy’s iconic novel fluttered elusively beyond the reach of pursuers, so the future of the 29-year-old ex-Celtic star shimmers ethereally before our eyes without taking solid shape.

ROGIC LEAVES EVERYONE GUESSING

The next step for Socceroo Tom Rogic has even those closest to the star midfielder scratching their heads.
Even Rogic's UK agent has been unable to pin the ex-Celtic star down on where to next at the age of 29.
Socceroos boss Graham Arnold has also been unable to make contact with Rogic, fuelling the mystery surrounding him.

More Australian football news can be found on FTBL.

Since mysteriously opting out at the last minute from Australia’s World Cup playoffs against UAE and Peru, citing personal reasons, Rogic has kept his own counsel, caught only fleetingly on camera training alone at Sydney’s Rushcutters Bay one day, before being snapped at the airport a week or so later departing back to the UK.

Whether or not Rogic intends to resurface for his country ahead of November to December’s World Cup in Qatar is a confounding conundrum, though on-going radio silence between Rogic and the Socceroos coaching staff doesn’t inspire visions of a joyous reunion between the two parties any time soon.

To add further intrigue to the puzzle, rumours of a move to Indonesia have given way to talk of a surprise re-union with his former Hoops coach Neil Lennon at Cypriot outfit Omonia Nicosia.

Rogic's normally effusive London-based representative Josh Barnett - whose agency Stellar Sports counts Jack Grealish and Gareth Bale among its clients - isn’t responding to queries on what his intentions are.

Barnett brokered Aaron Mooy’s recent move to Celtic, where ironically the midfielder has stepped into a line-up Rogic graced with such gusto last season as one of Ange Postecoglou’s most potent performers.

There are murmurings that Rogic’s financial expectations of future employers are unrealistic, whilst a dual narrative hints at the possibility he might take a leaf from the Mark Viduka playbook and simply decide to quietly exit stage left from the football world without farewell or fanfare.

Some of those who have worked with Rogic down the years have, in moments of candour, pointed to a player possessed of immense natural talent but not necessarily harbouring an unconditional love for a sport he has mastered with minimal sweat or toil.

Supportive of that assessment is Rogic’s apparent ambivalence to pushing the boundaries of his ability by pursuing any of the offers of Premier League football that were dangled, however tentatively, before him.

Nobody in the Socceroos inner sanctum has heard a peep from the playmaker since their qualification for Qatar in June, and even long-time confidants like former Socceroos interim coach Ron Smith, who discovered and nurtured Rogic as a skinny 10-year-old in Canberra, have been left guessing.

“I have no idea what he plans to do next - I’m as puzzled as the next person. It’s probably one of the biggest mysteries in Australian football,” said the man who recommended Rogic to Central Coast Mariners as an 18-year-old.

“He wasn’t in touch when he was back here recently - I wasn’t aware he was even home.”

Asked whether he thought Rogic might be contemplating retirement, Smith mused: “I have no idea on that. Whatever he does I don’t think it will have anything to do with falling out of love with football because I don’t think that happens to anybody.

“People only generally retire when they have to - unless it’s something else. It’s obviously a personal thing with him and what that might be you can only speculate about.

“The only person who really knows is Tom. And if he doesn’t want to divulge that to his closest people, it’s obviously something that concerns him greatly.

“In a football sense he still has a few years ahead of him. Some players do, however, decide to retire because of the toll on the body and the injuries they’ve suffered.

“In Tom’s case, though he has had his injuries down the years, I’m not suggesting at all that's the case. I simply don't know.

“I’ve spoken to others close to him what his intentions might be and none of them know either. It’s something he wants to keep private and we have to respect that.”

Smith countered the suggestion that Rogic had perhaps baulked at embracing the challenge of the Premier League over the course of his career, insisting: “I’m sure if the chance had genuinely been there he’d never had said no. Not for one minute. I think he’d have loved the opportunity.”