From pro debut to the World Cup in just 15 months – and the ex-Socceroo who called it early

Berkeley: Ruben Zadkovich saw it coming. In September 2024, before Lucas Herrington had played a senior game at club level, the then-Brisbane Roar coach made an extraordinary declaration, unprompted: that this frizzy-haired 16-year-old beanpole standing behind him, a player who most fans had never heard of, was actually “the best defender in Australian football right now”.

“For me, he has the highest ceiling of anyone,” Zadkovich said.

Of anyone?

The reaction was mixed to negative. Most people rolled their eyes, thinking Zadkovich – a young coach keen to make a name for himself in the A-League – had gotten carried away.

In retrospect, Zadkovich admits there was an element of performance about those now-infamous comments. The Roar were struggling financially and needed to sell players to have enough money to make further signings.

“And to do that, you need to generate hype,” he told this masthead.

But just because his words were strategic doesn’t mean they were confected.

“I just hadn’t seen anything like the level of detail of Lucas on the ball, and his understanding, his technical ability – and also the way he defended moments was something that I hadn’t seen in nearly any player,” Zadkovich said.

A three-cap Socceroo, Zadkovich wouldn’t have risked his reputation if he didn’t believe it. Today, he looks like a genius. “When you know, you know,” he said.

Just 533 days after his professional debut, Herrington is at the World Cup – one of the fastest and most remarkable rises in Socceroos history. And Zadkovich, who is an assistant to Mark Milligan with A-League premiers Newcastle Jets, has had a front-row seat to it.

He vividly remembers the first time he laid eyes on Herrington. He was one week into the job as Roar coach, watching the club’s NPL and under-20s team play and asking existing staff who the best young players at the club were. They didn’t mention him at first.

“They named five or six players: ‘We’ve got this midfielder, you’ll see this, you’ll see that,’” he said.

“While they’re talking … I’m looking at this big, tall centre-back, and I’m like, ‘Who’s this kid?’ Like, look at the size of him. And they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s Lucas Herrington.’

“I started watching the game … and I just remember thinking, ‘Holy shit.’”

Herrington was routinely pulling off difficult passes in tricky situations as if he was a seasoned veteran. His temperament was ice-cold. He was also blocking everything, throwing his legs in the way of every shot like a “goalkeeper with no arms”, as Zadkovich put it.

After the game, told Herrington he’d played well, asked him a bit about his background, found out he was somehow not even in Brisbane’s NPL team, and then said: “Well, you’re training with the A-League boys next week, if you can get off school.”

“I remember I actually rang my assistant, Chris Coyne, after that game on the way home,” he says. “I was like, ‘Bro, have I got a player for you’.”

The rest is history.

Anyone who’s played Football Manager will know the feeling: occasionally, the game generates for you a “wonderkid”, who you can tell from just one look at their stats that they’re going to become an amazing player. Herrington was that, but in real life.

As soon as he started training with the Roar, dominating small-sided games with his go-go-gadget legs, everyone else had the same first reaction as Zadkovich: holy crap.

It wasn’t just Herrington’s ability that blew him away, but his attitude, humility and diligence. Coaches love it when players ask questions in video sessions – but it’s not common, particularly with younger ones. Herrington was not just inquisitive, but sought intricate details on what they wanted from him in certain moments, hungry for anything that could help him improve.

Even during matches, Herrington would yell out to Zadkovich about tactics while the ball was still in play – then immediately implement his advice the next time the situation arose.

Zadkovich is far from the only coach to have felt this way about Herrington. After 29 games for the Roar, Herrington was bought by Major League Soccer team Colorado Rapids in January – but before he’d even got there, there were reportedly many clubs who were pursuing him. He’s immediately become a key player for Colorado. But the hot rumour is he could be on the move again; sources who are not authorised to comment say another transfer to a big-name club is said to be in the works.

Socceroos coach Tony Popovic is not prone to hyperbole when it comes to young players, but like Zadkovich, it took him one training session to decide if Herrington, 18, was ready to play for the national team. Now it’d almost be surprising if he didn’t start in Australia’s World Cup opener against Turkey.

“He’s doing so well in the MLS,” Popovic said.

“He’s played every minute of every game. I don’t want to jinx him now or us, but he’s very robust to keep backing up. If you look at their line-up, he’s the only centre-back that plays in every minute of every game. The other two are getting rotated all the time – but not him.

“It is quite special at 18 to be doing what he’s doing.”

After Australia’s 1-0 friendly defeat to Mexico, in front of the biggest crowd Herrington had played before, fellow defender Harry Souttar said, after playing with him for the first time: “It’s easy to forget he’s only 18. Mature beyond his years, completely. Lovely, lovely kid. The biggest compliment I can say to him is he looks like a man out there.”

Zadkovich called it – and he stands by every word he said 15 months ago. Even back then, he thought Herrington was just as good as the Socceroos’ senior centre-backs, but had far more upside.

“Where’s he going to be when he gets to their age?” Zadkovich said.

“With the right coaching and the right guidance, he literally could be Australia’s best player.”