Kye Francis Rowles (born 24 June 1998) is an Australian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for Heart of Midlothian. Rowles began his professional career with Brisbane Roar in 2016 before moving to

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

in 2017. He has represented Australia at under-17 level, including at the

2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the sixteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, held in Chile from 17 October to 8 November 2015. Host selection The following four countries bid to host the tournament: * * * * Venues Along with proposing ...

, under-23 level at the Tokyo Olympics and at senior level at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Brisbane Roar

In May 2016, Rowles signed his first professional contract with Brisbane Roar on a two-year deal along with fellow young defender Connor O'Toole. Rowles made his first competitive start for the Roar in a loss to

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan Hyundai FC ( ko, 울산 현대 축구단) is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in ...

in the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

on 28 February 2017.

Central Coast Mariners

Rowles moved to

on a one-year contract in June 2017. He made his Mariners' A-League debut on 18 November 2017, following an injury to

Josh Rose Joshua Liam "Josh" Rose (born 16 December 1981) is an Australian professional football (soccer) player who plays as a left back for National Premier Leagues Northern NSW side Edgeworth. He previously featured in the A-League for New Zealand Kn ...

, in a loss to Adelaide United. Rowles played for the Mariners in the 2021 FFA Cup Final, which the Mariners lost 2-1. Rowles was jointly awarded the

Mark Viduka Medal The Mark Viduka Medal is an association football award that recognises the best adjudged player/s from the final of the Australia Cup (formally the FFA Cup) each year. Introduced in the first edition of the competition in 2014, the award is named ...

along with

Jake Brimmer Jake William Brimmer (born 3 April 1998) is an Australian footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Melbourne Victory. Club career Brimmer began to show his skills at the Rowville Sports Academy and with his junior club Nunawading City ...

, becoming the first player to win the medal while playing for the losing team. He is also the only person to consecutively win the Mariners Medal.

Heart of Midlothian

On 9 June 2022, Rowles joined

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

side Heart of Midlothian for an undisclosed fee and signed a three-year deal. On 16 January 2023, following a successful World Cup with Australia, Rowles signed a five-year contract extension to 2028.

International career

Rowles was selected in the Australian under-17 team for the

. In November 2020, Rowles was called up to the Australian under-23 team for friendly matches against

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

sides. In June 2021, Rowles was called up to the team again for the

Tokyo 2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

. He was part of the Olyroos Olympic squad. The team beat Argentine in their first group match but were unable to win another match. They were therefore not in medal contention. Rowles made his Socceroos debut 1 June 2022 against Jordan in a friendly match, winning 2-1. Rowles was called up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Honours

;Australia U20 * AFF U-19 Youth Championship:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

;Individual * Mariners Medal:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021-22 *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

* A-Leagues All Star:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

References

External links

* * 1998 births Living people Association football defenders Australia youth international soccer players Australian soccer players Brisbane Roar FC players Central Coast Mariners FC players A-League Men players National Premier Leagues players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players of Australia Scottish Professional Football League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players People from the Illawarra Sportsmen from New South Wales Soccer players from New South Wales Australian expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in Scotland Australian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland 2022 FIFA World Cup players {{Australia-footy-defender-stub