'She had this swagger' - Casey Phair's former coach explains comparison to USWNT icon Tobin Heath and why South Korea wonderkid's nickname is related to Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Phair, who became the youngest player in Women's World Cup history last year, was born in South Korea but moved to the U.S. with her family as a baby and it was there she discovered a love for soccer. Soon enough, it was apparent that she had real talent and she would join the Players Development Academy in New Jersey, a program that helped develop USWNT stars such as Heath, Heather O'Reilly and Casey Murphy, likely to be the starting goalkeeper for the upcoming friendlies with South Korea.

When she was 15 years old, around the time that she was training with U.S. and South Korea youth national team camps, Mike O'Neill was her coach, a man who was there over 20 years ago when Heath came through, and he noticed similarities in the two players.

Speaking to GOAL, O'Neill said of Phair: "She would be in training and just try stuff. She would try a rainbow flick or whatever. It’s rare. So many times in the girls’ game, too many coaches try to kind of get that out of their system - pass, pass, pass, pass. If you watch Tobin Heath, she was obsessed. Tobin Heath’s hero was Ronaldinho. She would go on YouTube and try to do everything Ronaldinho was doing.

"When Tobin Heath played, we didn't say: ‘Maybe don't take on that fifth player', but: 'Have fun thinking of one-v-two [situations], find a friend, troll four players and find a friend’. We did the same thing with [Phair]. We would just say: ‘Have at it, but just make a decision. Maybe if you troll four, you've got to slip in your friend and let her have it’. That sort of became the mantra with her: ‘Keep trying things, keep going at people, keep expressing yourself’. And she does."

Such creativity would earn Phair a nickname at PDA, too, that of 'Ibra', after another of the coaches drew comparisons between her approach to the game and that of Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

"With Ibra, it’s like this boyish smile," O'Neill explained. "He's got this little boy mentality when he plays but he's got this physical swagger about him too, and presence. That was her nickname because she was so individually exciting and athletic and dominant, and she had this swagger, but she had this swagger that was never obnoxious because she always had this impish grin, like she was having fun doing it. Everything that she did, she did with a certain level of joy."

After choosing to represent South Korea last year, Phair will come up against the USWNT for the first time on Saturday, June 1, in the first game of a friendly double-header between the two nations. The second match will take place on Tuesday, June 4.