‘Lion mentality’: The sacrifices driving Milos Degenek’s World Cup journey

He’s getting ready to head to training for the Stuttgart youth team – a three-hour round-trip journey in the biting cold – which partly tells the story of where the ‘lion mentality’, which is driving both his and the Socceroos’ World Cup dream, was born.

Degenek, a fierce, no-nonsense defender, was born in Knin, Croatia to Serbian parents at the height of the country’s war of independence and was just 18 months old when his family fled the country in search of safety.

The Degeneks ended up in Belgrade, where the war had followed them and would later force his parents, Dusan and Nadia, to pack up their lives for a move to Australia when Milos was just six.

It was a brave decision that would ultimately lead him to a World Cup, by way of that $1000-a-month first contract with Stuttgart – a wage so paltry that he couldn’t afford a proper winter jacket, forcing him into the four-jumper outfit that became his trademark early on.

“I wasn’t earning big bucks and that’s where I learned the struggles and got that mentality,” Degenek explains.

“I thought to myself, ‘I’m training with another 20 guys but I want to be that one to go on to make it’.

“I can say I’m fortunate enough that I am one of the ones that made it.”

Degenek’s incredible upbringing goes some way to explaining why he is perfectly representative of a team that is willing to scrap and fight for every inch in a bid to become just the third Australian side to win a World Cup match.

The 28-year-old, who made his World Cup debut late on in the 4-1 defeat to France, is no certainty to start against Tunisia on Saturday night, but his influence over the team is undeniable.

From conversations he’s had with the team’s youngest players, to the inspirational speech he delivered before their successful final qualifying win against Peru, Degenek represents the beating heart of a Socceroos team that is battered, but not broken, after their French thrashing.

And it all comes back to the lion mentality, a phrase he’s referenced on social media since arriving in Doha.

“Lion mentality is … you either eat or you get eaten, and that's the simplest way to put it,” Degenek explained.

“I used this term before the Peru game with the boys, I said, ‘There’s bread on the table’.

“Either we eat tonight; my kids, my wife and my family eats tonight, or (Peru) eat and my kids go home to sleep hungry and my wife as well – and I don't want that to happen.

“I think (the Socceroos squad understands). That’s my mentality.

“I’ve been trying to insert it into the younger players, especially the ones that are new here and that are constantly asking for advice every day.

“I don’t need to say things like that to Maty Ryan or Aaron Mooy, or Maty Leckie.

“They’ve got their own ways. But most of the other guys know what I’m talking about and they understand where I’m coming from.”

And so the Socceroos turn their attention to Tunisia, where another hard fought contest awaits against a team that frustrated world number 10 Denmark in a 0-0 draw.

But don’t call it must-win – not with Degenek in earshot.

“‘Must-win’ (implies) you think it’s pressure. But I said to the boys the other day that’s not pressure,” Degenek said.

“Pressure is me as a six-year-old being in the middle of a war. That’s pressure. Pressure’s not a must-win football game, because you can win or lose, but I don’t think anyone’s going to die.

“This is just a joy of wanting to get better; wanting to have something to say to your grandkids, to your friends back home when you have coffee and say you won a game at a World Cup, you got out of the group.

“That’s what the boys understand and that’s how we’re gonna take this.”

Australia are aware they’re going to be entering a hostile environment on Saturday, where Al Janoub Stadium will be packed to the brim with boisterous Tunisian fans – far removed from the gentile atmosphere on Tuesday, where for portions of the game you could hear a pin drop against France.

The large local Tunisian population in Qatar will make sure of that, with Degenek expecting an 80-20 split for the outnumbered Socceroos fans in attendance.

But they can feed off that, he believes.

“It brings out the best in you, because when you have a crowd like that behind you, it gives you a lot more energy and desire and passion,” Degenek says.

“You don't feel pain, you don’t feel nothing.”