“No, actually. I’ve come back and my mentality is very different," he says. "I wouldn’t be the same person if I was in Australia.”

What he does wish though, is that during those dark timea he had some external support from an agent who understood football. Khoury’s family had little idea about football as a sport, let alone the murky world of football behind the scenes.

He adds: “We didn’t know how to deal with the pressure and deal with the clubs in the right way…

"We didn’t know the laws of football, we didn’t know the ins and outs of football, so I think having someone there that’s in it for your best interests would have helped.

“Once you go to a club, they always have THEIR back before YOUR back. So having someone on your side, that knows what the clubs are going to do in every situation, would help massively.”

Even though he couldn’t play in official matches, Khoury’s two years at Blackburn were no walk in the park. A pre-season in Scotland saw some of the most intense training sessions of his life.

“We used to literally run up mountains, run up hills with weights on our backs," he reveals. "Run around lakes with weights on our necks.

"Just crazy things, that I’ve never seen before, or after, really.”

Although his move to England was a difficult experience, it wasn’t all bad. There were moments that reinvigorated his drive to reach the top.

His mazy run as he dribbled past five players against Wolverhampton and a neat finish to top it off. His goal in the bottom left corner against his boyhood team Manchester United which sealed his move to Blackburn.

Khoury’s time at City also coincided with two other academy products – England U21 midfielder Phil Foden and Borussia Dortmund winger Jadon Sancho.

He says their skill was obvious even then, but what stood out to him was just how confident they are, which pushed him to go harder and hopefully match them.

“That’s my competition,” he said about the duo now dominating headlines around the world. “You do your best, you work your hardest to try and improve every percentage, every day.”

Now, with all that experience, Khoury’s career which is already filled with enough of highs and lows for veteran players, has led him back to Australia, where he will be playing for Central Coast Mariners in the upcoming NPL 2 season.

Of course, It wasn’t an easy decision to sacrifice the fancy life in English academies for the hard work in Australia’s third tier, but it was a decision he had to make for the good of his career.

The end goal is a return to Europe, but in the meantime, Khoury just wants to go back to feeling that same sensation with a ball at his feet.

He adds: “I just want to do what I’ve been born to do. Just enjoy what I’ve been doing my whole life.”