Just seven Australians have played in France's top flight: from Eddie Krncevic in 1989 to Mile Sterjovski in 2004. During that 15-year-period, it would be an overstatement to say they left an indelible mark on the French footballing landscape.

But, thanks to their performances and what they learned in France and elsewhere in Europe during sometimes glittering - and always more than respectable - careers, they made their mark back home in Oz.

As an Australian in France, when you meet someone new and they find out you're from Down Under, their first reactions have to do with kangaroos, huge spiders, deadly snakes and, once things move towards sport, it's the Wallabies - never football.

As an Australian lover of football (as opposed to a lover of Australian football, which is different!), commentator and journalist, this can be at times a little galling. So I get it that these seven names may not mean much to non-Australians... but they each mean a lot to me. And here, I'll tell you why.

I grew up in Australia the 1970s and 80s playing soccer, but it was - and still is - well behind both rugby codes, cricket and Australian football in terms of popularity in Australia. However, the sport played a huge role in post-war immigrant Australia - bringing together people from all kinds of ethnic and cultural backgrounds together, helping to forge our multi-cultural society.

And it was this Australia that the likes of Frank Farina, Ned Zelic, Robbie Slater and Mile Sterjovski represented when they forged careers in Europe. Coming from a sports-mad nation who were minnows in the World Game, these men had the pluck to take on anyone and the drive to excel in the strange waters of Le Vieux Continent, as the French sometimes refer to Europe. And when they returned to Australia, they were heroes with plenty to give back to the game in the land down under.

Genesis

It all started with the exploits of Eddie Krncevic, who won the league in Belgium - as well as three Cups - and became the first Australian to finish top scorer in a European league when he topped the charts with Anderlecht in 1989. That caught the eye of Mulhouse, promoted to the top flight in France for just the second time in their history and with whom Eddie would net seven goals as Mulhouse returned straight back to the second tier.

Robbie Slater was the next to arrive in France in 1991 and remains, probably, along with the more recent Mile Sterjovski, as the best-remembered Aussie in Ligue 1 Conforama. Slater's shock of red hair and his never-say-die, hard-running wing play made him an immediate favourite with the Les Sang et Or faithful. He helped them to promotion before enjoying the next three years in the top flight. He was twice named Oceania Player of the Year during his time at Lens, before joining Blackburn Rovers and winning the premiership in 1995.

"It started well for me, as I sort of fell in love with the supporters, virtually straight away and they did with me straight away. I think my first-ever game, I had a really good game or whatever it was. But I think in Lens, they love their battants. Because it's a working-class town and a working-class area, and they love fighters," Slater told me when we had a chat recently. "In me they got a fighter, but not only a fighter - something that not only Lens, but France had never seen: a red-headed kangaroo who ran around like a lunatic. They loved that; they thought I was crazy. I guess I was a little bit crazy, but I was determined."

A member of the Australian side that heart-breakingly lost a play-off for the last spot at the 1994 World Cup against Argentina, Robbie moved into the media after retirement and I was lucky enough to work with him as an A-League commentator during two years back in Oz between 2001 and 2013. I can confirm, as Bernard Lama once told me, ‘Robbie Slater was crazy.' He still is.

Farina: Top gun

Robbie was quickly joined in France by fellow Socceroo Frank Farina, another player who had starred first in Belgium, top scoring with Club Brugge. Farina was another no nonsense, hard-working striker who was hampered during his time in France by a serious ankle injury, but who, in two seasons alongside Frank Leboeuf, Olivier Dacourt and Marc Keller at Strasbourg and then a season with Lille, he remains the top scoring Aussie with 20 goals in three seasons. In his single season in Le Nord, he made his mark on Lille fans by scoring twice in the derby over Lens.

Frank returned to Australia in 1997 and promptly finished top scorer in the league before, as player/coach, taking Brisbane to the NSL title. He went on to coach Australia too, notably clinching a famous 3-1 over England at Craven Cottage in 2003.

Zelic's Auxerre era

Zlatko Arambasic had a season at Metz in 1994-95 before Ned Zelic arrived at champions Auxerre in 1996 to replace the departing Laurent Blanc, who was headed to Barcelona. Zelic was already a legend in Australian footballing circles for the incredible goal that qualified Australia for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics - as well as being a part of the Socceroos side that lost to Maradona's Argentina (1993) and then Iran (1997) in World Cup qualification tragedies… A UEFA Cup finalist and Bundesliga champion with Borussia Dortmund, Zelic loved his time in France, despite falling foul of the choices of legendary AJA coach Guy Roux.

"Before home games, we would go into a hotel and spend the night there. We'd all drive to the hotel and leave our cars there. And apparently he would put rocks on the actual wheel to see if any players had left the hotel," a laughing Zelic recalled. "I don't know if it's true or not, but he was just that type of guy - he wanted control over everything. But the club was his baby - he had taken it from the eighth tier to the Champions League."

Dogue-whistling

Ross Aloisi, the older brother of Australian World Cup hero John Aloisi, spent the 1998-99 season with Lorient, before Mile Sterjovski signed for Vahid Halilhodzic's Lille side in 2000. Playing over 100 times for Les Dogues, including their first ever Champions League campaign and scoring 15 goals, Mile netted a match-winning double against Paris Saint-Germain in his first season.

He went on to win the league in Switzerland with FC Basel and in Australia with the Central Coast Mariners, and will always be remembered Down Under as a member of the Socceroos squad that played in the World Cup in Germany in 2006, eliminated in the dying seconds against future champions Italy in the second round.

During Sterjovki's four years in France, another young lively attack midfielder named Nicky Carle spent two seasons in a struggling Troyes side. I interviewed Nicky a few times after that, when he was captain of Sydney FC alongside Alessandro Del Piero in 2011-12, and he spoke in glowing terms about his coach at l'ESTAC, despite limited chances: a certain Alain Perrin, who would go on to manage Lyon and Marseille.

Golden era

Nowadays, when I chat to Paris Saint-Germain right-back Thomas Meunier, he fondly recalls his time alongside goalkeeper Maty Ryan at Brugge. I often chat to PSG assistant coach Zoumana Camara about playing with Vince Grella and Mark Bresciano at Empoli and Paul Okon and Mark Viduka at Leeds.

We haven't had an Australian in Ligue 1 since Mile Sterjovski but, having seen the impact these players have had in developing the game when they return to Australia, I think it would be fantastic to have a Socceroo - or two - flying the flag in Ligue 1 once more.