The first recipient of the Lucas Neill Football Scholarship was Chris Payne. Lucas is the current Socceroos and West Ham captain and is putting back something into the local game by setting up a scholarship for talented football juniors in the Manly area.
The Lucas Neill Scholarship is a prestigious junior sports award that provides financial and technical assistance to fast track promising young players into a professional football career.
Payne, a Narrabeen Sports High school student won the award as a 15 year old. He has already been flown over to Blackburn FC (while Neill was with Blackburn) to get a taste of the professional English Premier League.
Neill was his mentor during the stay and has taken a keen interest in young Chris’ development.
Chris was invited back to England last summer to trial with West Ham (where Lucas Neill is the current captain) and Charlton professional football clubs.
Chris decided to return to Sydney and was offered a contract with Sydney FC Youth Squad as a 16 year old to play a vital part in the FFA’s new Youth League Competition.
Young Chris’s next big step on the road to football fame and fortune was to be selected by John Kosmina to play for the senior team against an experienced Victory squad last Saturday night.
Many Sydney journalists have branded young Chris the “next Mark Viduka”.
I guess they did it to put his potential and football abilities into some sort of perspective and to help showcase his debut.
The call up was just as much to do with Sydney FC’s lack of available players for the game, as much as for his undoubted potential.
With the likes of John Aloisi, Tony Popovic and Alex Brosque watching from the stands, Sydney coach John Kosmina handed both the Narrabeen teenage striker Chris Payne and dead-ball specialist Shannon Cole their A-League debuts.
Lucas Neill was so thrilled to hear Payne has been selected for the Sydney FC first eleven at such a young age, he has specially asked for a DVD of the match to be sent over to him.
It wasn’t a fairy tale start for Payne on Saturday night: he had a disappointing game and was replaced early in the second half.
His debut was upstaged by another Sydney FC youngster Shannon Cole, who hit the inside of the Melbourne Victory goal post with an expertly curled free kick.
A depleted Sydney FC outfit didn’t play to their best, and young Payne didn’t get the opportunities that he wanted or needed to be able to score.
Surely he’ll come back bigger and better than that one day.
But after Nathan Burns was recently unveiled by AEK Athens as the next Harry Kewell, maybe Chris Payne doesn’t feel too happy about being dubbed the next Mark Viduka.
Especially with all the weight of expectation that this will bring.
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