San Francisco: Unlike many Socceroos, Connor Metcalfe did not grow up in a football household. Far from it, in fact. His old man knew so little about the game that, when he came home from school one day and declared he wanted to start playing it, he had no idea what to do or how to help him.
So Grant Metcalfe did what any sensible rugby league man from Newcastle would do. He took his six-year-old son into the backyard and started booting a Steeden not to him, but at him. Reasonably hard. And from relatively close range.
Connor could only use his feet to receive it.
“Looking back, it was a bloody awesome idea,” Metcalfe says, laughing.
“I’d used to have to control it; you’d have to take it on the fly; however, it came at you. He’d just sort of belt it at me, and I’d have to pass it back to him or juggle it. That was his thing. Then we’d swap to a normal football – and it became so much easier.”
This, if you can imagine it, is the partial making of a World Cup goalscorer for the Socceroos. This is how Metcalfe became one with the ball.
“The big man, shoutout Grant,” he says. “He was on it.”
Metcalfe can barely remember a time in his life when football wasn’t a huge part of it, but it was never something his family was particularly interested in. His dad played rugby league, and his mum played netball, but neither at any serious level. His brother played soccer but gave it up at 11 years old.
He inherited no obsession with the game, and has no deep and emotional origin story to tell about how it came into his orbit.
“I don’t know where this drive and passion came from,” he says.
Metcalfe thinks it probably happened in grade one at school.
“I just played it at lunch, and I loved it,” he says.
“I just loved kicking this bloody ball around, chasing it. And I remember coming home and saying to mum, ‘I want to play soccer’.
“And she was like, ‘All right.’”
The request sent his novice parents on a crash-course of self-education: YouTube rabbit holes, ball mastery programs, the minefield of the Australian grassroots soccer industry – whatever they could find or do to help their son, whose gifts were obvious despite his diminutive size.
In the process of turning him into a Socceroo, the Metcalfes turned themselves into football people. These days, Connor reckons, they watch more football than he does.
“They’re very invested, and they love it,” he said.
“My dad took the coaching very seriously. He used to be watching highlights, and he’d come out when we used to practice together, and he’d be saying, ‘You have to shoot like [Wayne] Rooney.’ He loved Rooney. He was a good coach for not having any background.”
By the time Metcalfe reached his early teens, Newcastle no longer felt big enough for his ambitions.
The family moved to Melbourne, and he enrolled at the Maribyrnong Sports Academy, but soon caught the attention of Melbourne City. Within a year he was in City’s academy; within four, he’d made his A-League debut and worn green and gold for the first time at junior level.
Throughout, and especially since he started playing for the Socceroos in 2021, Metcalfe has flown under the radar. He is a footballer’s footballer, whose contributions often don’t get the credit they deserve from fans but are prized by coaches and teammates.
“Maybe because I’m not the most flashiest player,” he says.
“I’m not shooting from everywhere, and I’m just trying to keep it simple. I just like to work hard for the group and do my best. But it doesn’t really bother me, because we’ve got so many young and up-and-coming talents, so the main focus is on them, which is absolutely fine.”
At least that was how it was until he scored against Turkey, and then was dropped to the bench by coach Tony Popovic against the United States. But the 26-year-old’s glittering performance in the second half mounted a strong case for a return to the starting line-up for the critical Group D clash against Paraguay at San Francisco Bay Area Stadium in Santa Clara, which will determine Australia’s path through the knockout phase.
Metcalfe is coming off limited minutes at club level this season for German club FC St Pauli, which is why he so deeply appreciates Popovic’s support.
“I haven’t played much, so I don’t expect much. And for him to just go, ‘No, I don’t care, I’m going to play you,’ it’s a really nice feeling because I don’t have that feeling at my club,” he says.
“I want to repay him with everything I’ve got, every time I play.”
