As a teen, Connor was ‘half the size of everybody else’. On Sunday, he made history

More than a decade later, Colin Cooper still remembers watching the Victorian state team match where a scrawny adolescent outmanoeuvred his much bigger opponents with ease.

It was 2014, and the 15-year-old Connor Metcalfe amazed Cooper time and again: a first touch into free space away from any danger, followed by the most creative opportunities the soccer coach had seen in under 18s sport.

“He was sort of running the show,” Cooper recalled on Monday.

“Although he was half the size of everybody else, he just had this ability to find spaces and control the game.”

After that match, Cooper learnt that the teenager lived 200 metres from the school where he worked – Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. The school offered Metcalfe a place in year 10, and later that year, he kicked a goal in the school’s premiership match.

As he watched history repeat itself during Sunday’s World Cup match, where Metcalfe launched a left-foot goal to give the Socceroos a 2-0 win over Turkey, tears came to Cooper’s eyes.

“It was just astonishing to watch,” he said. “It’s amazing when that opportunity comes along, he just takes it.”

A coach of three decades, Cooper said he still showed footage of the midfielder playing during his high school days to other students as a way to remind them that in the years when they’re still growing and changing, it isn’t their build that matters but their ability and their commitment to getting better.

He remembers one soccer camp on the Gold Coast, where Metcalfe had to be weighed before going on a waterslide to make sure he was heavier than 40 kilograms.

“He’s the greatest example I’ve seen of if you’re not physically developed yet, just keep plying your trade and keep working on your technical capacity,” Cooper said.

“If you take care of all those tools on the tool belt, when you physically grow, you’re going to be super prepared, and that’s why I always thought Connor was going to make it because he had those attributes.”

Cooper said he also pointed out Metcalfe’s humility to students.

“He never had a big head, was a quiet kid and tried to do the right thing around school. It seemed like he was destined for some sort of high-level success.”

This trademark modesty was on display when Metcalfe reflected on his strike from outside the penalty area, taken 75 minutes into the game and making him one of just 11 players to have ever scored a goal for Australia during a World Cup match.

“When I saw that ball go in, the feeling that went through my body, I can’t explain it,” he said in a post-match interview.

“It’s an amazing feeling, and to be honest, it’s all a bit of a blur.”

At Maribyrnong College, where the now 26-year-old attended years 8 and 9, the star player’s former coach, Adrian Mazzarella, recalls a similar kid described by Cooper, saying Metcalfe had an unmatched work ethic.

“He was short and skinny, but he was very technical. At that young age, he was out-thinking his opponents rather than out-muscling them,” Mazzarella said.

“He knew what he wanted from a young age; it wasn’t a chore for him, he just did it. If he wasn’t training [with] the team, he would have been doing something on his own.”

At Metcalfe’s alma mater on Monday, the feeling of inspiration was palpable.

“It’s cool knowing there is a pathway to that level going through PEGS,” said Eden Jezewski, who is in year 8 and involved in the girls’ first soccer team. “Knowing that he has done it then shows that I could potentially do that in the future, too.”

Orpheus Sidiroglou, a year 10 student who plays in the boys’ first soccer team, said he tried to bring the same tenacity to his game as Metcalfe did.

“I’ve heard he never missed a game for school when he was here. To have a Socceroo a part of the PEGS team, it’s pretty amazing, and I hope to one day follow suit.”

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.