{"id":766903,"date":"2026-06-29T02:40:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T02:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/766903\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T02:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T02:40:13","slug":"be-kicking-themselves-stars-priceless-reaction-over-young-gun-as-6m-transfer-blunder-emerges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/766903\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Be kicking themselves\u2019: Star\u2019s priceless reaction over young gun as $6m transfer blunder emerges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Socceroos midfielder Connor Metcalfe joked the Brisbane Roar must be \u201ckicking themselves\u201d after prematurely cashing out their sell-out clause for Australian young gun Lucas Herrington.<\/p>\n

The 18-year-old Queenslander, who currently represents the Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer, became the youngest Australian to start a World Cup match during last week\u2019s 0-0 draw against Paraguay at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. The centre-back contributed a team-high ten defensive interventions to help the Socceroos keep a clean sheet, which proved enough for Australia to qualify for the knockouts.<\/p>\n

He will almost certainly keep his spot in the starting XI for Australia\u2019s Round of 32 match against Egypt in Dallas, which commences on Saturday at 4am AEST.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now ><\/a><\/p>\n

Herrington has been linked with a move to La Liga champions Barcelona, where he\u2019s predicted to fetch a price of somewhere between $23 million to $30 million, according to the <\/p>\n

CIES Football Observatory. The current Australian record is Leicester City\u2019s $26 million purchase of Harry Souttar from Stoke City in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just trying to stay present and really enjoy this moment,\u201d Herrington responded when asked about the transfer speculation last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my first one, hopefully first of many, but it doesn\u2019t come around very often.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really just trying to put my best forward and work hard, and we\u2019ll see what comes after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m just fully focused on the World Cup and the team at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/p>\n

\u2018I TOOK IT TOO FAR\u2019: US reporter apologises after going viral<\/a><\/p>\n

CANADA VS SOTH AFRICA: Emotional scenes after stoppage-time madness<\/a><\/p>\n

Australia’s Lucas Herrington. AP Photo\/Eakin HowardSource: AP<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Metcalfe praised Herrington\u2019s calmness and maturity, claiming that \u201cnothing really fazes him\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty wild, to be honest… he never looks nervous,\u201d he said<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not nervous when he has the ball… sometimes if a young player is playing, a lot of the other boys can be nervous they\u2019re going to make a rash decision, but he\u2019s calm on the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s dealing with all the hype and press really well, he\u2019s very level-headed and a nice guy, and that will help him a lot in his next stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, Herrington signed for Colorado following an 18-month stint at the Brisbane Roar, with the A-League club selling him for about $1 million.<\/p>\n

According to the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>, the Roar negotiated a 20 per cent sell-on clause with Colorado, which they recently cashed out for about $530,000. <\/p>\n

If Herrington\u2019s rapid rise continues and the deal with Barcelona comes to fruition, the A-League club\u2019s decision to choose a short-term cash injection over holding out for a bigger sum could cost millions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll probably be kicking themselves,\u201d Metcalfe laughed when informed of the sell-on clause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Socceroos midfielder Connor Metcalfe joked the Brisbane Roar must be \u201ckicking themselves\u201d after prematurely cashing out their sell-out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-766903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}