Soccer: Teenager who Wood be next hero for All Whites

Chris Wood is the youngest player at the Confederations Cup. He's also the youngest of only five Kiwis to play in the English Premiership and the second-youngest to ever play for New Zealand.

In fact, his rise happened so quickly at West Bromwich Albion that rival Premiership side Portsmouth printed his name on the back of his shirt just minutes before kickoff between the two teams - because West Brom didn't have one ready.

To cap it all off, last month he signed on as a professional for the Midlands side and got a call-up to the All Whites for the Confederations Cup. It's heady stuff for a 17-year-old who only three years ago was playing Waikato junior football.

"As I look back I have achieved practically all of my dreams already at the age of 17," Wood says. "I'm going to have rethink a lot of those in the time off before I go back to West Brom [for the next English season].

"As a kid I dreamed of playing for the All Whites and used to go to every home game. I always wanted to play for them but didn't think it would come so early.

"It's a great achievement to be only the fifth New Zealander to play in the Premiership. And then to play the world champions Italy, it's unreal. To play Spain would be the icing on the cake."

There's a good chance he will get some time against the European champions. Wood is not just along for the ride.

He is one of the most exciting talents to come out of New Zealand in recent times and is clearly seen as the No 3 striker behind Shane Smeltz and Chris Killen. There is a chance he could even start ahead of Killen later in the week.

At 1.91m and 91kg, he's tall and powerful for a player of his vintage. "He has huge potential," All Whites coach Ricki Herbert says, "and he's starting to realise that. I think the next year is crucial for him because you can sometimes fall off the radar. He's developed a lot in a short space of time and does that now keep spiralling up or dip off? That's the challenge for him."

Everton said he wasn't good enough when he trialled there last year. West Brom, though, clearly saw something special signing him on as an apprentice and it paid off for them.

He scored goals for fun for their academy side this year and couldn't stop finding the back of the net when he stepped up to the reserves. Twenty-four goals in all at better than one every second game.

"I remember sitting down at the start of the season and watching the reserves and thinking, 'I wish I could be out there this season', he says. "I didn't think I would even play for them last season.

"Then one Friday afternoon one of the [first-team] players got injured in training. The gaffer [Tony Mowbray] said, 'you're coming with us today down to Portsmouth'. I had no idea I would get a run. I thought I was going along for the experience, just being in and around the first team.

"When I came back from warming up he said, 'Chris, you're going on'. I was just in shock from that time until I ran out on the pitch. Then I remember running out there and standing beside Sol Campbell, a player I have watched for years. It was pretty incredible."

It was Wood's only taste of Premiership action all season. He was included in the squad for the few remaining games of the season but had to content himself with warming the benches and watching West Brom get relegated from the top flight. Relegation was something he probably took better than most of his team-mates.

"It was disappointing," he says, "because our club wants to be in the Premier League. I would much rather be playing there but I'm not sure I would have got as much gametime in the Premiership. From my point of view, it could be a good thing because I'll get more time but you never know who stays with the club."

For all of his success, though, there's still one thing that still haunts Wood.

"I had a chance to score off a corner in the 90th minute [against Portsmouth]. I just didn't put it on target, which I should have done. If I was in the reserve team, I think I would have put it away."

You can't have everything in life.