Soccer-Australia's Kewell bows out with A-League loss

MELBOURNE, April 12 (Reuters) - Harry Kewell, Australia's first world-class footballer, signed off from his roller-coaster 18-year career with an emotional 3-2 loss for A-League club Melbourne Heart against Western Sydney Wanderers on Saturday. The 35-year-old former Leeds United, Liverpool and Galatasaray forward was granted a valedictory match in front of 10,000 home fans by Manchester City-owned Heart but was denied a fairytale finish as Brendan Santalab and Youssouf Hersi both scored in the final 10 minutes to seal victory for the visitors. Kewell, who scored 17 goals in 58 appearances for Australia, had signed a one-year deal with Heart with the hope of playing in a third World Cup tournament, but announced his retirement from all football last month after spending much of the 2013-14 A-League season sidelined by injury. Having battled for weeks to recover from an abdominal strain, Kewell delighted fans by playing the full 90 minutes, setting up towering Dutchman Orlando Engelaar's first half strike with a free kick and being involved in a number of attacking moves. Voted Australia's greatest ever footballer by fans in 2012, Kewell shot to fame with a Premier League debut for Leeds in 1996 as a talented 17-year-old and became his country's youngest international weeks later in a match against Chile. A Champions League trophy with Liverpool and two World Cup appearances in 58 matches for the Socceroos were to follow a glittering 181-game stint for Leeds, but his ambitions over the last decade were repeatedly curtailed by injuries. Given a guard of honour by both teams as he strode on to the AAMI Stadium turf with his family for the last time, Kewell stayed on the pitch long after the final whistle, soaking up farewell cheers from the crowd. "That was something special ... What can I say, that was fantastic," Kewell said in a pitchside interview. "I love the game and I'd play until I'm 47 but I think it's the right time for me to move on and see the next generation come up." (Reporting by Ian Ransom,; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)