Brisbane Roar head coach Ruben Zadkovich believes teenage defender Lucas Herrington will net a significant transfer fee as the next cab off the rank in the club’s “blueprint” focused on fostering young talent and selling players to overseas clubs.
Zadkovich labelled Herrington as the “best defender in Australian football” in pre-season, before the 17-year-old had even made his Isuzu UTE A-League debut.
The comment raised eyebrows at the time, but the Roar head coach has now doubled down on his assessment of the teenage defender.
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His side may have picked up just six points this season but Zadkovich remains upbeat about Brisbane’s future, having highlighted Herrington as one of several young players capable of generating healthy transfer fees for the club in the coming years.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult season, and (we’re) probably not points-wise where we’d like to be, we probably didn’t want to be down the bottom. We expected to be somewhere mid-table and that hasn’t happened,” Zadkovich said.
“But one of the big positives during this transition period and through the difficult time the club is in, you get an opportunity to blood these young guys, and to play these young guys in really trying circumstances.
“To see the likes of Lucas (Herrington) go away with the 20s (Young Socceroos)… just the way he handles himself, and he’s really growing into being a professional footballer, it’s a massive thing for this club. I feel like the transfer figure on someone like his head is very, very big. Like I said earlier in the season, I haven’t really seen a talent like him.”
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Herrington is currently in China with the Young Socceroos, taking part in the AFC U20 Asian Cup in which Australia have breezed into the knockouts off the back of three wins from three group stage games.
He’s not the only young Roar player currently on international duty with an Australian youth side, with Quinn Macnicol, Charlie Parkin and Rhys Williams all selected in the Joeys squad for the Hattrick U17 International Tournament in the United Arab Emirates.
“(We’ve) got the three young boys away with the Joeys: Quinny, an exceptional player who is certainly growing into his body now. I think he’s the leader there and the captain, with young Charlie and Rhys to go with him. All three are really good young kids, good young players,” Zadkovich said.
“I’m also very positive about the exposure we’re giving to young Jacob Brazete, Nathan Amanatidis, Sam Klein – another Queenslander – and there are more.
“As many of these young ones as we can blood in this transition period, as many as these young ones we can develop quickly, they become sellable assets for the club. I think that’s going to be a really important blueprint of our club moving forward, trying to produce as many sellable assets as we can.”
In January, Brisbane sold young striker Thomas Waddingham to English Championship side Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee – a deal Zadkovich believes the club can replicate in the coming years with a commitment to fostering young talent.
Obviously the sale of Tommy Waddingham is a really good example. A year ago he was playing in the NPL, and now he’s playing in the Championship for Portsmouth. Those things don’t happen easily, it takes a lot of time and a lot of dedication from a lot of people – none less than the player themselves.
We’ve got some fantastic young talents, they’ve got really good attitudes and one of the highlights of my job at the moment is coaching these young players through this period and watching them grow into themselves. That’s probably the biggest positive so far this season, to be honest, the exposure these young guys are getting.
