Reading call fills dad's heart with pride
Alistair Edwards could not be more proud of sons Ryan and Cameron, who have signed professional deals with English Championship club Reading.
But the former Socceroos striker, who is now Australia's assistant technical director, is not entirely comfortable with the environment that led to his sons going overseas.
Ryan, 17, has a four-year deal, and Cameron, 19, will have a year, at least, to make an impression.
Edwards, whose job with Football Federation Australia is to help improve playing standards, is confident his boys can make it.
His only disappointment is that the Australian youth internationals did not get a chance to kick-off their professional careers in the A-League. Both played for Perth Glory's youth team and Cameron shared the best player award with Dean Evans last season.
"We want to encourage our players to stay in the country," said Edwards, who was 17 when he left Perth in 1985 to start a career that was rewarded with international caps. "My advice to them, and to all players, is to try and stay here in the A-League first and then if they got the opportunity to go overseas later, that's when they should look at it.
"It's heartbreaking, in a way.
"But it makes my resolve stronger. We need to create more opportunities for our players to be able to stay in Australia."
The 10-team A-League does not cater for the number of players being produced in Australia.
After being overlooked in Australia, the Edwards brothers reached a positive outcome just two weeks into a trial at Reading in March.
"Our first game was against Fulham reserves and they had quite a lot of first-team players - Bobby Zamora, Zoltan Gera, (Philippe) Senderos, (Diomansy) Kamara, (Jonathan) Greening, (Simon) Davies," Cameron said. "It was a spin out."
Ryan said his dad's guidance had already been invaluable and would continue to be so, albeit from afar.
"Dad is definitely a role model. We want to follow in his footsteps ... and go beyond it," he said.
