KEY POINTS:
Move over Rhain Davis.
You may have been touted as the next Wayne Rooney, but there is already a kid out there hailed as the next Pele.
The Rhain Davis story has provided a lead-in to the world of soccer whiz kids on YouTube, the internet phenomenon where
the average punter becomes a video star with rating figures to put Brad Pitt in the shade.
The YouTuber of the moment is Rhain, the nine-year-old Brisbane kid of English origins who was taken on by Manchester United after his Cheshire-based grandfather sent them a DVD of the youngster in action.
It is fantastic to watch this nine-year-old twist and step over his way past a host of opponents and hit the back of the net with ease.
It's not just his close quarter skills that stand out either. Just as you think he's about to dance around an opponent again for good measure, he'll send a lovely pass on for a teammate.
Rhain is already a YouTube star.
While he's a good 50 million hits short of the YouTube record, which appears to be held by a comedian who wiggles his hips and just about every other body part through the history of pop music dance, Rhain's greatest tricks have reached 3.3 million hits and climbing.
He's not alone though, in the kiddy cyber footy world. There is a little fella called Charlie Edwards who has already had a Wembley-sized audience check out his array of backyard moves. They aren't even that flash, although that is only to be expected since Charlie is just three.
The next Pele is a whole different story though. Real name, Jean-Carlos Chera, and he's a pocket-sized bag of tricks with a cluster of fans who claim he's better than Rhain.
Moving on, there is the next Ronaldinho, a certain Cristian Ceballos, who can bend over while balancing the ball on the back of his neck and then removes his jumper while the ball stays in place.
Ceballos has already played trick soccer tennis with Ronaldinho, although in the relative obscurity of a mere 23,000 YouTube hits.
Then there is the Turkish kid Yavru Kartal Muhammed, a 10-year-old who makes fools of opponents who are a full head higher and apparently four years older. He is supposedly Barcelona bound.
And for every one of these little geniuses, there is someone ready to post cyber messages claiming they've seen better in a local park. Some of the information around these kids is murky, of course, from their current age to their names, which aren't always listed.
For now the number of these soccer wunderkind is reasonably limited on the internet although the hordes of admirers, critics, sceptics and armchair scouts can be measured in legions.
There will be those who take the serious view that kids like Rhain Davis will be burnt by the publicity. Already, commentators have recalled the case of Sonny Pike, who was taken in by the famous Ajax academy in Holland when just seven. He suffered a breakdown in 2000, and quit the game three years later.
Sonny is okay though. He lives near Dundee, plays Sunday league football, coaches kids and is studying to be a sport psychologist.
In many ways, the case of Rhain Davis has simply brought the world of dribbling dreams out into the open. The pressures, the successes, the joys, the heartaches would be there with or without YouTube and all that spotlight.
Pike himself says that media attention was the least of his problems next to the pressure from clubs, agents and sponsors.
It doesn't always end at the local park of course. David Beckham was a Manchester United fan who won a tricks competition as a teenager, although his youthful journey took him to other clubs before the Red Devils pounced.
Davis is merely one of 30 youngsters of his age who will go into United's academy this year.
Whether he has the speed, strength, football sense, attitude and maybe even the necessary dash of luck to follow the likes of Ryan Giggs into the United first team remains to be seen.
His extraordinary ability gives him a head start, and it would be a surprise if he didn't get a full-time United scholarship when he turns 12. But there are no guarantees even of that, nor that he will ultimately transfer the extremes of his talent into the highest leagues.
Like many others, he may even fall along the way and return to civilian life, or end up in the minor leagues or in less attractive teams.
The world will be watching of course, and it could be a more interesting football world because of this YouTube phenomenon.
The Rhain Davis story, and the YouTube link, shows once again that football ignites the passions like no other sport.
And where there is a football, whether it is in a Brisbane park or a South American slum, there is also a camera capable of uploading the action to the world.
You would expect a rush of similar videos hitting YouTube from now. Manchester United and other clubs can expect a lot more DVDs across their desks as well, but maybe these will not be the only flow-on effects.
Football is at its best when fuelled by magic and the next Wayne Rooney, the new Pele, the future Ronaldinho are showing kids around the world, and just as importantly their coaches, what can be achieved at a young age.
The odds of the brilliant young Turk actually becoming the next Maradona may be small, but why not dream.
The emphasis on supreme skill hardly needs promoting in places like Brazil, but in other countries, including our own, it could do with all the help it can get.
Maybe in 10 or 15 years' time, the football world will be a more interesting place and we will be able to thank the YouTube generation for that.
