Israel Folau knew exactly where he would be after he left school

YEARBOOK pictures can often be entirely cringe-worthy and forgettable, but for Israel Folau, his parting high school message was so accurate it’s scary.

Folau’s eerie yearbook prediction

ISRAEL Folau is a figure that oozes confidence.

For the majority of athletes, with a resume that includes international caps in both rugby union and rugby league, as well as a season of professional AFL under their belt, it would be hard not to feel they had a fair amount to be confident about.

But when it comes to Folau, that confidence is something that is part of his very character, and was present even before he had set the nation on fire with his amazing ability to take his hand to any of Australia’s three oval-ball codes.

The current Wallaby full-back showed his outstanding self-belief in the comment he left under a smiling portrait of his 17-year-old self in the 2006 copy of Marsden State High School’s yearbook.

While most school leavers will write something humorous or ambitious, outlining what they would like to be doing somewhere in the unforeseeable future, Folau seemed to know exactly where he would be when he said he would be “playing football for Australia”.

It didn’t take long for Folau’s prophecy to come true, as he made his debut for the Kangaroos just a year later, making him the youngest player ever to represent Australia in rugby league at just 18 years and 194 days old.

Six years later, as a 24-year-old, he made his debut for Australia in a different code, and currently has 33 caps for the Wallabies.

Interestingly, his comment doesn’t denote which code of football — maybe his switch to the 15-man game was in the back of his mind right from the outset.

Regardless, that is one hell of a yearbook quote.