Photo credit: Colorado Rapids
Note: this piece originally appeared in inboxes on Sunday, July 26. Sign up for Nourse’s Notes here to get first access to newsletter stories.
Perhaps the most exhausting portion of Lucas Herrington’s first week back from his World Cup debut was his media carousel. If there was an outlet to speak to, he spoke to it.
He’s a hot commodity in the Denver sports market right now, having been one of the youngest players in the whole of the World Cup, and the youngest to ever feature in the competition for Australia.
When he arrived in Colorado six months ago, he was a young talent with hopes just to get some minutes at the outside of a deep center back rotation for the Rapids. Nobody who spoke to him this week, myself included, could have guessed he’d be on the radar of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and some of the top clubs in the world.
All that, plus he’s an MLS All-Star at the budding age of 18. The recipient of a loud ovation upon his return to club soccer this past Wednesday. Not often you’ll hear a roar for a center back subbing on late in a tie game.
For all his youth, experience, burden and potential, Herrington is just a footballer, he told me on Thursday — the highs and lows of representing his country, stepping up for and missing a penalty in a World Cup knockout game all just “part of the job.”
“It’s a men’s game, so there’s no age factor anymore. It’s not like I’m playing under-18s or anything,” Herrington said. “It’s nice to hear people keep saying I’m young, but I think now it’s just … I’m a player, and I’m just doing my job every week to the best of my ability.”
His mindset matches what his new reality contains. Breaking into better and better starting lineups is routine. Goal-saving tackles, dominance in the air and calmness on the ball are the standard, regardless of the opponent and level of play.
More impressive is that at every turn, he speaks like he’s lived this exact life a few times over. Minutes after the worst moment of his career, he was stoic about it. Ready for next time.
Off the pitch, he’s still adjusting to life on his own.
“(Colorado) is like a home away from home. It’s the first place that I’ve had to live by myself,” Herrington told me. “It’s the first place I’ve had an apartment, you know, under my own name. It really is a second home for me outside of Australia.”
He said he still texts his family every day and navigates the time difference for three phone calls a week to his mum, give or take.
It’s that reality — a young man navigating a new city, a new league and a new life simultaneously — that he credits for what happened with Australia this summer. For his club football career, a cross-planet move to Colorado may have been the best thing to ever happen for the boy from Brisbane.
“I’ve learned so much about myself even just from being in Colorado and how much I’ve grown up and matured since I left Brisbane,” Herrington said. “Coming here has definitely helped me grow up and mature as a person because I’ve had to live by myself and everything. It’s all prepared me to take the next step and just be ready for whatever comes.”