Never give up. Keep working hard, believe in yourself and never throw in the towel. Those cliches are the mainstay of sports psychology books the world over. For most they are mere words, just catchphrases. But not to 28-year-old defender Cameron Burgess. The Aberdeen-born, Western Australia-raised footballer is living proof that dreams can come true, that perseverance and dedication do pay off.
Burgess is celebrating Ipswich Town’s stunning promotion to the Premier League and the end of the club’s top-flight exile of 22 years. It comes just 12 months after the Tractor Boys vaulted from League One into the Championship, with back-to-back promotions adding another layer to the club’s scarcely believable story.
“It’s been pretty surreal to be fair, I won’t lie,” Burgess says. “It’s been a mad journey so there’s not been a lot of time to reflect. It’s been pretty special. To go back-to- back is something crazy that I probably wouldn’t even think about until the day I hang up my boots.”
Burgess has been there the whole astonishing, madcap two years at Portman Road. Making 71 appearances over the past two seasons, the centre-back has been a key member of manager Kieran McKenna’s team, a defensive iron at the back protecting McKenna’s attacking arsenal.
But it almost never happened. Four years ago the Australian’s career was at a crossroads; he was languishing in the fourth tier and on loan at Salford City when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. After nine years playing in the lower leagues in England and Scotland, from Cheltenham Town to Bury to Scunthorpe United after first arriving at Fulham’s academy as a 15-year-old, he strongly considered a move back to the A-League.
But Burgess stayed true to his Premier League dream, and spent the next two years with Accrington Stanley before he eventually landed at Ipswich. The rest, as they say, is history. Well, actually, not quite. After being dropped early by McKenna, he was forced to wait for an opportunity to get back into the first team due to Covid and then had to recover from a horrific fractured cheekbone and broken eye socket in 2022, before finally reclaiming his place.
Burgess admits it was a difficult start. “I had to just work hard and get myself in the team,” he says. “It’s just been a case of belief in what the club is trying to achieve, belief in the manager and how he goes about things. And probably for the first time in a while being able to actually go, ‘you know what, when I get the chance to show it, this is the style of playing that gets the best out of me as a player’.
“When you ask anyone that comes to watch the games, they probably attest to that. They’ll say I’ve improved a lot, which is the same for everyone in the team, but to show that I can do it in a style of football and in a way that suits me down to the ground… it’s been perfect for me.”
Burgess is effusive in his praise for McKenna, the 38-year-old from Northern Ireland who has been linked with jobs at Brighton and West Ham, and is now being compared to past Ipswich managerial greats such as Bobby Robson and Alf Ramsey.
“Honestly, he’s incredible,” Burgess says. “There are too many words to use I suppose. First of all, I’m forever grateful that our paths have crossed and the job he’s done for me personally and for the for the rest of the boys has been nothing short of amazing.
“But as a manager, just the attention to detail… the way he works and how dedicated he is is, he’s definitely shown with the results he knows what he’s doing and all the boys in that dressing room trust him 100%.”
Burgess is not the only Australian flying the green and gold flag in Suffolk. Another central figure has been Massimo Luongo. Like his countryman, Luongo has flittered across the English Football League over the past decade, with spells at Queens Park Rangers, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough, but has found a real home in East Anglia and thrived.
“What a guy he is,” Burgess says of his teammate. “He’s been amazing for the club, amazing for the team for the last couple of seasons. There’s no coincidence that we’ve had all the success we’ve had whilst he’s come along… I’m absolutely delighted for him and it couldn’t have happened to a better guy.”
From a journeyman footballer to a Socceroos debut eight months ago and now headed to the Premier League, Burgess is riding a wave of self-created good fortune. And with the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, and the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool awaiting, there is plenty to look forward to.
“I don’t know what’s happened there, it’s all come at the same time,” Burgess laughs. “But I guess, it’s just a part of the environment that you work under. Everything’s working out and I’ve just worked really hard and knuckled down, and everyone around me has helped me get to where I’ve got to, which is a big part.
“I owe a lot to the people around me. Friends, family, coaches, the club as well. That’s helped me to get into the national team and obviously we have a really strong group there. It was similar to what we have at Ipswich. I guess the culture in both teams has been has been amazing. And it’s great to be part of both groups.”
