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.

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.

“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