Transfer fee, Australian record, who is he, how old is he and why he chose over Liverpool and Barcelona

When news broke during the World Cup that Barcelona were interested in an Australian teenager who had yet to even play at the tournament, it was not mere paper talk.

The interest was real.

Such was Lucas Herrington’s seamless adaptation to Major League Soccer from Brisbane Roar, where his poise, passing accuracy and read of the game were qualities beyond his tender years, he already had the football world up and taking notice.

Ruben Zadkovich knew, the former Brisbane Roar boss who made what, at the time, felt like an outrageous call declaring his teenage defender the best in the country, before he’d even laced a ball in senior football.

But no one could have predicted what the next 12 months would yield, climaxing with today’s news of his move to the Premier League for $33 million – making him not just the best defender in the country, but the most expensive Australian footballer ever.

If a lucrative mid-season move to MLS with Colorado wasn’t enough, the explosion from March onwards was enough to make anyone dizzy. But not Herrington.

Speaking to football360 in Socceroos camp, all while teammate Nestory Irankunda was cracking jokes from behind the camera, Herrington spoke with the quiet confidence of a kid who knows the world he’s living in, but will not be fazed by it.

“It’s been a lot, but I’ve got a great support network around me, just telling me to stay humble, keep my feet on the ground and just enjoy every moment really,” he explained to us.

SUPERCOACH EPL: Join the official Football360 league and prove you can beat the experts!

A Socceroos debut. A World Cup call-up. A World Cup start. Even the low, an inevitable in any footballer’s career, of missing his penalty against Egypt, showed the temperament of a player destined for big things, shrugging it off, speaking candidly about it, then getting back into club football and enjoying a performance with the MLS All Stars – all with the backdrop of transfer speculation.

If it wasn’t being the centre of a a public local storm, with revelations of Brisbane Roar selling part of the sell-on clause to Colorado Rapids, costing them some $3 million, it was the interest in the background.

Barcelona, of course, who watched him in MLS.

Then there were the pathways a ’normal’ Aussie would take, through Scotland, Holland, Belgium and the like. Interest was palpable from all of those countries, and their biggest clubs – but they were going to get blown out of the water.

Not only could Herrington choose an ambitious pathway, but it was also an oportunity for Colorado to make a shrewd return on their brilliant investment in the then A-League player.

So why Hull, then?

How did Herrington, who was watched by Barcelona and had interest from Liverpool, end up at a newly promoted Premier League side, who have not been in the top flight for a decade?

His agent, Buddy Farah, explained to football360: “It has been a lengthy process as Lucas had attracted the eyes of some of the world’s biggest clubs – most notably Barcelona and Liverpool.

“However, after careful consideration and sleepless nights filtering through all the different options we felt the way forward was playing at a club that was going to challenge the kid and get him out of his comfort zone.

“The risk to reward is massive.

“There is no crystal ball to know how any move will transpire but we felt like this feels right.”

Hull wanted Herrington and the Australian record transfer fee represents their investment in a player they see as key to their Premier League survival – a massive opportunity for a young player to take a stepping stone, while playing at the highest level, as opposed to risking being a smaller part in a bigger machine.

Make no mistake, this is a watershed moment for Australian football.

For years we enjoyed a who’s who of Socceroos royalty in the Premier League, but the well had run dry.

Now, Herrington leads a new wave of players in Europe’s big 5 leagues and even more remarkably, has been coveted by as many of the world’s big clubs as any of the golden generation ever were.

“A monumental time in Australian football,” Farah beamed.

“This is a game changer for the next generation of kids aspiring to be the next Herrington and co.”

Hull City return to the Premier League for the first time in a decade but having leaked 66 goals in the Championship last term – the fourth most in the division despite winning promotion, via the play-offs. They needed to identify defensive solutions.

Manager Sergej Jakirović has previously worked with a 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 system, so would have identified Herrington in Tony Popovic’s back three central defensive unit during his two starts, against Paraguay and Egypt at the World Cup, and possibly also in his four previous outings against Curacao, Cameroon, Mexico and Switzerland.

It is naturally a risk hanging that responsibility on a teenager, but so far, he has proven to be unflappable at whichever level he has been asked to rise to.

Speaking on Football360 Today, football expert Daniel Garb said: “Hugely exciting for Australian sport as a whole, not just Australian football.

“This is an Aussie who is going to see a lot of game time. He is a phenom…

“He’s going to a place he’s going to play in the biggest league in the world…

“If you’re Lucas Herrington, you say, get me to the Prem and I will show it.

“Virgil van Dijk came through at Southampton. That’s where he made his name. Lucas Herrington is Australia’s Virgil van Dijk. Who says he can’t make the same progress from a club like that to the very top.”

He continued: “It would have been amazing to see him siogned by Barcelona, but he wouldn’t have played there…that’s not to say he wouldn’t have made it there.

“I think he’ll go to clubs much bigger than Hull City in time.

“The fact he’s going to be playing minutes in the Premier League – maybe not every week, there are Cup games and so forth.

“At 18 years of age, it is so incredibly exciting for his career.

“He is made of the right stuff mentally, as we know, but even though he is such a humble softly spoken kid, he will back himself to go there and shine.

“Great for the Socceroos but great for Australian sport that he can grow from this stage. We don’t have the worry if he goes to Barcelona and gets loaned out and does he get lost a little bit? Two years go by and he … goes to different clubs and doesn’t get the continuity.

“Hull is a much greater chance of providing him that and at 18 that is hugely exciting.”

Click here to read article