Socceroo Jordan Bos has been compared to Welsh legend Gareth Bale. The similarities are closer than you think

San Francisco: Jordan Bos is Australia’s Gareth Bale. If you’ve watched him play, you’ve probably made the comparison, and it’s only natural. Even his Socceroos teammates see it.

“He’s like a young Bale, isn’t he?” said Connor Metcalfe, unprompted.

The similarities are obvious enough to require no deeper thought: he’s big, fast, left-footed and loves open space. Next question.

But it’s truer than most people realise.

Bale, who played 111 times for Wales, was always one of the smallest players in his junior teams – until the age of 14, when he shot up 20 centimetres in just 18 months. This prolonged growth spurt transformed him from a technically gifted but undersized left-back into a physical specimen who would terrorise defenders for the next two decades for Tottenham Hotspur, Real Madrid and Wales.

A teenage Bos followed a remarkably similar arc. Metcalfe, who came through the academy at Melbourne City with him, remembers Bos being tidy on the ball, but tiny in stature – until, suddenly, he wasn’t.

“Out of nowhere, just after an off-season, he came back and he was a unit,” Metcalfe said.

Without size or strength to rely on, Bos – like Bale – was forced to learn how to survive and manoeuvre his smaller frame to receive and keep the ball. Once his body finally caught up and grew to six feet (183cm), the hardest work was already done, and his game clicked into place.

Bos always knew he’d get bigger eventually because his father, Jacco, is quite tall, too.

“I said to my friends, ‘Just wait, wait and see’,” he said.

The 23-year-old has a rare capacity to motor past opponents like they’re not there, becoming one of Australia’s most powerful attacking outlets from left wing-back.

“I like seeing space in front of me,” he said. “Lights show up in my eyes.”

Bos has just completed a career-best campaign for Feyenoord, his first in the Dutch Eredivisie, laying on a team-leading nine assists as they clinched qualification for the UEFA Champions League next season.

Jacco, his old man, played youth soccer for rivals FC Twente and Heracles, but grew up a Feyenoord supporter, passing his obsession on to his children. In 1997, as a 23-year-old, he went on a backpacking trip to Australia, met his future wife, Sandra, and moved back there permanently.

Jordan and his younger brother Kasey, 21, who this week signed for Dutch club Excelsior Rotterdam, each had a ball tossed at their feet before they could even walk. Their childhood in Melbourne’s west revolved around soccer: endless backyard sessions with their father, shooting and juggling competitions, and matches with neighbourhood friends.

Jacco was not trying to force them into a career in soccer; he was simply forcing them to get out of the house.

“He hated when we were on the computer too long,” said Bos, a committed gamer to this day.

“Every time I actually wanted to play on the computer, I had to go to my friend’s house and sneak my laptop with me so he wouldn’t see. But he knew that as well, so he didn’t like me going over there too much.”

Good thing Bos was also bitten by the soccer bug. His favourite player was Arjen Robben, and every time he watched his highlights on YouTube, he felt a “burst of motivation” and went outside to kick the ball. And he was obsessed with fitness, even at a young age; there are family videos of him busting out a set of 10 push-ups in the shower at four years old.

“I would always watch How to Get a Six-Pack in 10 Days and just pumping those workouts all the time,” he said.

“I am kind of genetically fortunate – I don’t really get fat that easily. It’s easy for me to put on muscle these days.”

Feyenoord will be lucky to keep him for much longer. His representatives were recently in England, laying the groundwork with Premier League clubs for future transfer discussions – in which case he would follow in Bale’s footsteps yet again.

Bos seems perfectly suited to the physicality of the modern-day EPL.

“We’ll see where it goes,” Bos said.

First, he needs to have a good World Cup to spark the interest – and it helps to have teammates who are ready to defer to him when his moment arrives.

Metcalfe usually plays on Australia’s left flank, which means he often has Bos overlapping him. When he sees Bos bearing down the touchline, he knows what he has to do next.

“I just let him do his thing. I just give him the ball, and just go,” he said.

“He’s a freak. He makes football look pretty easy – which is annoying, because we have to try really hard.”