Portsmouth FC will hope they've struck £200k gold with "next Mark Viduka" | OneFootball

New Pompey striker Thomas Waddingham is a player being tipped for big things back in his native Australia.

Portsmouth have confirmed the signing of striker Thomas Waddingham from Brisbane Roar, with the teenager being hailed as "the next Mark Viduka" by some in his native Australia.

Announced on January 22, Waddingham has arrived at Fratton Park in a deal understood to have cost Portsmouth just £200,000.

Having recently been linked with clubs such as Tottenham, Bayern Munich, Sheffield Wednesday, QPR and Middlesbrough, John Mousinho and Pompey appear to have pulled off a major coup to secure the signature of the 19-year-old centre-forward.

Due to his rapid emergence as a real talent for the future, he's even been proclaimed as the "next Mark Viduka" back in his native Australia.

Waddingham is clearly a player who many believe has a very bright future in the game, and should he emulate Viduka's success in English football, then Portsmouth will have struck gold with this transfer.

Waddingham isn't the first young Australian striker to be labelled as the next Viduka, but like all of them, he will have dreams of being the last.

The Socceroos have been desperately searching for a centre-forward capable of replacing Tim Cahill's boots since the Everton and Premier League icon retired from international football in 2018, and there are many Down Under who hold the belief that Portsmouth's new man is the one they've been waiting for.

A decade before Cahill made his debut for Australia in 2004, Viduka was the nation's most prolific centre-forward, having begun his senior career scoring bags of goals for Melbourne Knights.

Between 1995-1998, he was hitting the back of the net at a fearsome rate for Croatian giants Dinamo Zagreb. That caught the attention of Celtic, who in December 1998, parted with a fee of around £3.5m to bring him to Glasgow.

31 goals in 39 appearances for the Hoops would precede a switch to English football in the summer of 2000, as Viduka signed for Leeds United for a reported fee of £6m.

He would instantly become a hit with the Elland Road faithful, with his physicality, technical ability and hold-up play making him a nightmare for defenders to contain. He would score 72 times in 166 appearances for the Whites, before departing for Middlesbrough in 2004.

On Teesside, he would play a vital role in the club's two European Cup campaigns, with the second of those in the 2005/06 season taking them all the way to the Final, where Boro were ultimately beaten 4-0 by Sevilla.

He would leave the Riverside in 2007 having scored 42 times in 101 appearances for the club, leaving a legacy as one of Middlesbrough's greatest centre-forwards of the modern era.

Ending his club career on Tyneside, Viduka would score a further seven goals in 40 appearances for Newcastle United before retiring in 2009 having cemented himself as one of the best strikers in the Premier League during his time in the top flight.

Waddingham will become instant cult hero if he fires Portsmouth to Championship survival

So, it's perhaps an understatement to say that should Waddingham even go close to replicating Viduka's achievements in his career, £200k will be one of the finest investments in Portsmouth's history.

Had Viduka been playing in today's game, his goal record would suggest he'd be worth far more than what clubs paid for him at the time, but the player Waddingham might become years down the line will take care of itself.

Right now, he has the chance to become an instant hero at Fratton Park, as Pompey prepare for a fight to preserve their Championship status over the coming months.

With Elias Sorensen gone and fellow Australian Sammy Silvera recalled from his loan spell by Middlesbrough, Waddingham joins a Portsmouth side that have suffered some casualties to their forward line.

Mousinho's depth behind Colby Bishop doesn't appear to be rich with goalscoring quality, and so should he translate his form in-front of goal in the A-League to the Championship, he could see plenty of opportunities to make an impact in the second half of the season.

If he does hit the ground running, Waddingham could very quickly make his transfer fee look like a real snip, as Portsmouth hope they've discovered a wizard from Oz.