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 yesterday.

The 35-year-old former Leeds United, Liverpool and Gala-tasaray 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.