DOHA, Qatar -- The only South African-born player at the FIFA World Cup, Australia representative Keanu Baccus never fielded enquiries from the South African Football Association (SAFA) about representing the land of his birth, but, even if they did, his heart was always set on the Socceroos.
Born in Durban, Baccus and his family migrated to Australia when he was less than a year old; they settled in Sydney's west, where he grew up playing for a number of local sides before being scooped up by the academy of Western Sydney Wanderers.
Baccus' older brother Kearyn Baccus, seven years his senior, also migrated to Australia with the family, but he featured in the junior setup of Sydney FC before commencing his professional career that includes playing for four A-Leagues clubs and nearly 50 games for South African powerhouse Kaizer Chiefs.
Previously a member of Australian youth representative teams and the Olympic squad, Keanu was called up to the senior national team for the first time in September, and his impressive debut performance against New Zealand, in conjunction with strong form for Scottish side St Mirren, earned him a place in coach Graham Arnold's side in Qatar.
He told reporters at Australia's World Cup training base on Wednesday that SAFA never made contact about switching his international allegiance -- not that it would have made much difference.
"I came over to Australia when I was nine months old," Baccus said. "I don't know any different. I'm Australian through and through. I've never thought about not playing... [the World Cup] and the Olympics have come my way at such a young age and I'm just hoping to kick on."
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Baccus moved to Scotland in the most recent offseason, after spending his entire career to that point in the A-Leagues, and he said that he was enjoying the high stakes associated with the open pyramid of football there.
"You can definitely feel it at some stages in games where you're under the pump," he said. "You know your fans almost need that win and the whole club needs three points to just want to progress up the table and stay away from that relegation battle.
"That's the main thing. The relegation battle is huge over there, and no team wants to go down; [at] St. Mirren, we don't want to go down and we want to be as high as possible."