Teen Tommy the All Whites new hired gun

LAWRENCE SMITH

LATE ARRIVAL: Tommy Smith made himself available for New Zealand after a recent Fifa rule change.

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Tommy Smith hasn't been back to New Zealand since he became a professional footballer. Hasn't seen his older brother in Te Puke for three years, and even missed his wedding last month. He hopes his international career, which began in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, might take him back more often.

If the 19-year-old Ipswich defender becomes an All Whites regular, Smith will probably relish those visits. More international caps will likely mean Smith's parents have left him to fend for himself and returned to Godzone.

His mother, Gail, a nurse, and father, John, an electrician, had already shifted from Papamoa to Auckland to further their teenage son's nascent career and have now returned, reluctantly, to England to help him settle.

But they want to retire back to New Zealand – where they first emigrated when Tommy was eight years old.

"It's a slow process, to be honest," admits Smith. "My parents have made massive sacrifices, which I really appreciate. Without that support, I don't think I could've done it. If I had come by myself, it could've been a completely different story, I would have been homesick. But to have them there – they have helped me out with everything I've needed."

While Smith is still living at home, he made the first steps to professional football on his own. When he began his first full-time contract with Ipswich in June 2006, the club got him digs with a local family. "It was a bit daunting," he says, with studied understatement. "A 14-year-old kid, away from his parents and in a strange place, but I just got on with the football. I knew that was what I was there for, and I just got on with it."

It's all he ever wanted to be, he says of his pro football career. He was spotted by Crewe Alexandra and enrolled in its academy at the age of eight, and while his football education in Papamoa appears to have been less intense, the Smiths moved to Auckland when Tommy began high school so he could join Westlake Boys' programme. And it was there he was spotted by a holidaying Ipswich scout. He was signed to a five-week trial, then a scholarship, and returned every school holiday before making the permanent move four years ago. Within six months, Smith had played for England under-17s at the world cup in Korea, sharing a group and a hotel with New Zealand – but if his journey seemed a fairytale until then, it has had hurdles since.

In September 2008, he lunged to block a shot during a training-ground game, caught his foot in the ground and dislocated and fractured his fibula, dislocated his ankle and tore all the ligaments in between. He spent seven months sidelined, the first month confined to bed, where he played a lot of computer games and rapidly gained weight. "It was a bit depressing really. I'd gone from playing football every day and it was hard to overcome."

Earlier this season, he managed to break into the Ipswich first team, only to dislocate two fingers in his hand so badly they poked through the skin. When his hand healed, he was shipped out on loan to second division Brentford, where he remains.

A recent Fifa rule change allows players who have turned out for one country at junior level to represent another in seniors, which is how Smith has been able to play for the All Whites.

Smith's clearance to play for New Zealand arrived only 48 hours before his confident debut against Mexico in Los Angeles last Wednesday. His own timing was just as precise: coach Ricki Herbert says Smith has turned up at the "24th hour" of his World Cup plans.

Smith's coach at Ipswich is the infamous Roy Keane (described as a "bit unorthodox", strict, inspiring, plain speaking). Smith appears to have developed some of Keane's attributes and talks like he plays: understated, unruffled and composed.

He looked comfortable against the Mexican onslaught and said he'd enjoyed the atmosphere created by 90,000 rabid, screaming, horn-tooting enthusiasts. Afterwards, when Herbert lauded him as "outstanding", Smith simply stated that he could've done better.

- © Fairfax NZ News