'It's surreal - but kind of cool': The Sydney best mates reunited 10,600 miles away at Portsmouth
The Australian pair became friends after joining Sydney’s under-13s on the same day
The dads speak on the phone together once a week, while the sons are room-mates 10,600 miles away in England.
The Matthews and Segecic families have been firm friends for the last decade, a strong bond forged through sharing Sydney FC footballing journeys and now continuing on the other side of the world.
Having joined the A-League club’s under-13s, Hayden Matthews and Adrian Segecic formed an instant rapport, connecting over boyhood aspirations of playing in Europe as they progressed towards first-team football.
Matthews achieved his ambition first, clinching a £1.2m switch to Fratton Park in January and subsequently being handed a Football League debut just 24 hours later.
Now he’s been joined on the south coast by Segicic, who last month clinched a move for an undisclosed fee after turning down a new deal with the New South Wales club.
Friends reunited - and the natural choice to share a room on Pompey’s pre-season training camp in Slovakia.
‘Our dads speak every week, I don’t even know what they talk about’
Matthews told The News: ‘It’s very surreal having him here, when you actually think about it. We are two people who joined Sydney at the same time, with the same goal of making it to Europe and playing football.
‘Even featuring in the first-team together at Sydney was pretty surreal. Now we’ve both come over to England in not only the same league, but the same club - and it’s great being able to continue this same journey together.
‘Segga is one of my best friends, we’re Sydney born and bred, while our parents have always got along really well too. Our dads speak every week, I don't even know what they talk about. Dad loves a phone call, he calls everyone.
‘The first time we met, we were playing in an under-10s tournament, with our teams meeting in the final. We lost 5-3 and I think he scored all five goals.
‘A year later we played each other in the Borneo Cup in Malaysia and he won again, this time on penalties. He’s still 2-0 up as we’ve been team-mates since.
‘We both joined Sydney at the same time in 2013, in the same the under-13s age group when we were aged 12, going on 13.
‘To be honest, he was always a bit ahead of me. Sydney do really well at playing people up, he was probably one of the more advanced players in the team at the time. He was with the first-team from 16, which was crazy.
‘We still trained together all the time and, although we still played a large number of youth-team games in the same team, it could have been more.
‘Before I came to Pompey, we’d spoken a little about the possibility of being in England together. I had interest previously and he knew he was out of contract at the end of the season and didn’t know where he would end up.
‘We were pondering on the possibility of this all happening - and it’s kind of cool it has.’
Matthews enjoyed an encouraging start to life in England, with six appearances for the Blues, before an ankle ligament injury cruelly cut short his season with 12 matches remaining.
Now fit-again, he has been lining up alongside Segegic in pre-season, with both on-pitch together when the attacking midfielder opened his goal account in the opening friendly at Woking.
And the centre-half is relishing the opportunity for the ex-Sydney team-mates reuniting competitively in Pompey's first-team during the forthcoming Championship season.
‘Looking at him, you knew he was going to make it’
Matthews added: ‘When we joined together at the under-13s, he was one of those you looked at and said he was going to make it.
‘Some people might have had their doubts about his size and how much he was going to grow from a young age, but you just had to watch him play, seeing how sharp and technically good he was with that determination.
‘He will bust a gut, he’ll always give 100 per cent and technically is very, very good. He’s good on the half turn, he has that ability to shoot from distance with his left foot.
‘He can also play a bunch of positions, off the right, coming inside to receive it on his left foot, or in the 10 or the left. It’s quite handy to have anyone who can play across the attacking areas.’