By Dave Allan
As Australia face Spain in their final World Cup group game tonight, Socceroos skipper Mile Jedinak will be following in the footsteps of an enigmatic former Boro player.
The Palace man will lead his nation against the reigning world champions on the biggest possible stage.
But it is doubtful whether the former Boro man in question will even bother to watch the poignant moment.
Geordie Peter Wilson, a player whose name will mean nothing to most Boro fans, is lauded Down Under as the man who captained the Aussies at their first World Cup back in 1974.
The tournament in Germany completed an extraordinary six-year journey for the Felling-born defender from Boro reject to World Cup hero.
Those few Teesside fans who remembered his single first team appearance for Boro were unlikely to have recognised him as he led out his adopted country against East Germany, eventual winners West Germany and Chile.
Wilson, then aged 20, had emigrated to Australia after being released by Boro during the summer of 1968 before reinventing himself as a wild-haired, rugged defender with handle-bar moustache who went by the name of ‘Big Willie’.
From Boro zero to Aussie hero, he represented the Socceroos at the greatest show on earth more than 30 years before Mark Schwarzer and Mark Viduka were part of the second Australia side to reach the World Cup in 2006.
And yet little is known of Wilson. He is virtually unheard of among Boro fans and, despite his acclaim, remains an enigma even in his adopted homeland.
A newspaper that tracked him down shortly before the 2006 World Cup tournament discovered Wilson living in a mountain hideaway near Wollongong, south of Sydney.
He was heavily tattooed, had a Harley Davidson parked in his driveway and a Clydesdale horse called Bonza.
His home was ringed with barbed wire to keep away prying media.
“There’s nothing I want to say,” he told the Daily Telegraph. “I’ve got nothing to add.”
Wilson’s football story began with that single game for Boro, a Division Two clash with Charlton at Ayresome Park in February 1968.
Wilson played at right-back as John Hickton scored for Stan Anderson’s side in a 1-1 draw.
Wilson must have hoped his career would take off. Instead, as far as Boro was concerned, that was the end of it.
Anderson released him that summer.
But rather than go down the leagues, he decided to go Down Under, making the brave decision to start a new life thousands of miles away in Australia after a brief spell with his home town Gateshead.
There, his form as sweeper for South Coast United brought him a call-up to the Aussie squad shortly after their attempts to qualify for the 1970 World Cup had ended in play-off defeat to Israel.
By the time of the 1974 qualifiers, he was playing for Safeway United – the new name for South Coast - and had established himself as the leader of a bunch of little-known amateurs who overcame New Zealand, Iraq, Indonesia, Iran and South Korea to qualify for the finals in West Germany.
There they were drawn in a ‘group of death’, losing 2-0 to East Germany before a three-goal loss to the host country and eventual champions, Wilson tossing the coin with West Germany’s legendary captain Franz Beckenbauer.
Finally, the Aussies fought their way to a goalless draw with Chile.
After defeat to the West Germans, the legendary Gerd Muller said of Wilson: “He is the roughest man I’ve played against.
“He didn’t seem to care whether he kicked the ball, a leg or a head.”
Wilson was a dominating figure in the Australia side for a decade, officially winning 64 international caps, 60 as captain.
Ex-Boro players Luke Wilkshire and Tony Vidmar are among those who have since surpassed Wilson’s tally of caps, while Schwarzer is the most-capped with 109.
After the World Cup of ’74, Wilson and his team-mates returned to their football backwater.
Despite offers to return to England or play for clubs in Germany, the ex-Boro reserve remained in Australia, going on to play for Western Suburbs and APIA Leichhardt.
In 1977, he was briefly reunited with Boro, captaining Australia from midfield as the Teessiders beat them 5-0 in a friendly as a warm-up match for the 1978 World Cup qualifiers.
Always shy and unassuming, Wilson has been a recluse since ending his playing days.
When the Australia team of ’74 held their first reunion in 1997, he was the only one who failed to turn up.
Three years later, he refused to attend the inauguration of a Sydney street named after him.
Who knows whether Wilson will bother to tune in as the Socceroos take on the stuttering World Champions in Brazil?
But no one can doubt that this forgotten man of Boro was a true Aussie trail-blazer.
