Updated June 12, 2026 — 3:46pm,first published 3:32pmAlameda: When a youthful Manchester United side lost to Aston Villa the opening day of the 1995-96 Premier League season, BBC’s Match of the Day pundit Alan Hansen uttered a phrase which has become arguably football’s most famous misjudgment.“You can’t win anything with kids,” he said.Among those kids were David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Nicky Butt. Sir Alex Ferguson had sold some of his best senior players from the previous season and, unlike their major rivals, made no major signings to replace them, because he was happy to rely on the quality of the graduates from the club’s academy.Critics thought he’d gone mad. United went on to win the league and cup double that season, and Hansen’s words live on in infamy.In that spirit, Socceroo Mohamed Toure doesn’t want to hear about how he and his teammates are too young to be ready for what awaits them at their first World Cup.And especially not these days.Mohamed Toure is ready to make this World Cup his own.Getty Images“I feel like football has changed,” he said. “You see a lot of teams in the world ... that Spain team, one of the favourites to win. Have you seen their age?”La Roja’s squad has an average age of 26.2 – one of the lowest in the tournament – and many of their best players are 23 and under. Lamine Yamal, arguably the best player on the planet, is only 18, and therefore cannot buy alcohol in America until 2029. The Socceroos, for the record, are the 17th-youngest World Cup team on average, at 26.88 years old.“It’s like Barcelona, as well,” Toure continued.“You see Pedri: young. Gavi: young. [Alejandro] Balde is young, Lamine Yamal is young, [Pau] Cubarsi is young. Half the Barcelona team were young – and then you have an experienced Real Madrid team that haven’t beat Barcelona in how many games?Lamine Yamal at Euro 2024.AP“So I feel like experience is important, but it’s the best players on the day. And I’m not saying the best players on the team are the young ones. I’m just saying that whoever is the best will play. It’s a mentality.”Toure’s confidence is not unique within the Socceroos, or indeed, football. It is representative of a generation of players like him, and teammates Nestory Irankunda, Cristian Volpato and Paul Okon jnr, who have grown up watching teenagers dominate at the highest level.The idea that players need hundreds of senior appearances before they can be trusted no longer holds the same weight to them, when they can see Yamal winning the Euros at 16, and Desire Doue and Joao Neves, both 21, winning the UEFA Champions League.They don’t see the need to wait – so they don’t.Mohamed Toure in action against Mexico.AP Photo/Kyusung Gong“Yes, it’s my first World Cup. Yes, it’s a big tournament,” Toure said. “But I feel like the guys with the biggest hearts and the best mindset kill this tournament. And they have good tournaments because they don’t make the occasion too big in their head. That’s what I’m trying to do.”In that department, Toure can hardly be faulted. It is precisely why he believes he enjoyed such a productive start to life at Norwich City, the English club where he scored 10 goals in just 12 appearances after a mid-season transfer, cementing him as Australia’s first-choice striker - because he refused to accept any other outcome.“I feel like when people go to new teams, especially if it’s an upgrade in league, they tend to put in their head doubt,” Toure said.“Like, ‘OK, I’m in a bigger league now, it’s going to take time for me to adapt. The first few weeks I’m not going to play, but that’s alright.’ I took a way different approach to this Norwich one, because I’m like, ‘In the summer I have a World Cup. I want to go to the World Cup, but I also want to be in my best shape, and to be in my best shape, I have to play games. I have to work my [backside] off to be in the starting team and play. I have to make sure going into that World Cup I’m the most confident I’ve ever been in my career.’“And then that mentality, I think it worked out for me – and when you believe something in your head, it actually becomes true.”Toure even earned a comparison with Erling Haaland from his coach at Norwich, Paul Clement, specifically in recognition of his mental strength, for recovering after missing a penalty. And that resilience was on display in Australia’s friendly defeat to Mexico, where Toure had an open goal at his mercy, put the ball wide, but didn’t let that moment overwhelm him and continued to battle hard.“Maybe a year ago, I would dwell on it … but some go in, some go out, some don’t score,” he said. “As long as I was there and in the right position, I know the next time that ball comes, I will score.”The only real question mark over Toure these days is his fitness – and even that seems to be resolved, at least in the short term.Sources close to Toure, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that it was only a stomach bug that kept him out of training on Wednesday (local time). Teammates Aziz Behich and Jacob Italiano, who fronted media after Thursday’s closed session, later confirmed he was out there and looked good.“When I get on that pitch, I just want to continue my form,” Toure said.“It might sound unrealistic to some people that it’s a World Cup here, it doesn’t happen … but I want to prove to people that it can happen.”From our partners