FUTURE SUPERSTAR : JOVAN KIROVSKI IS JUST 20 BUT HE'S U.S. SOCCER'S ...

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

He makes them sigh longingly, young girls and grown men alike.

Jovan Kirovski, barely 20 years old, could be a matinee idol if he weren't already locked into this gig being the future of American soccer. (And if anyone still ever used the term matinee idol.)

He's dreamy. Ask anyone.

The teen-age girls at the U.S. national soccer team's practices. The photographers who regularly shoot the team. The reporters and other national-team observers who have seen him grow since first being called up to the squad three years ago.

Or maybe ask the folks from Manchester United, the Premier Division soccer club in England, who have reportedly offered the young American a four-year contract in line with what some of its top stars are making.

``Oh, he's the real deal. Don't worry about that,'' said Steve Kelly, an English scout who does freelance work for Manchester United and who discovered Kirovski four years ago and brought him to play for the United's reserve team.

``The kid is absolutely in a different class,'' said Kelly. ``With no disrespect to any other American players, he is so far ahead of the game.''

No offense taken here, chap. The Americans knows what they have in Kirovski.

``I think he's ahead of Joe-Max Moore and Claudio Reyna (at the same age),'' national team coach Steve Sampson said, referring to two other national team members who have starred internationally. ``He has been in a very professional environment. I think he's three or four years ahead of the game.''

Sampson, whose team plays Mexico at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at the Rose Bowl in the final game of the U.S. Cup, is constantly trying to remind himself that Kirovski is just 20 years old.

For one thing, Kirovski is a big kid. Listed at 6-foot-1, 170 pounds, he appears taller and thicker than that. Yet, he moves with the deft elegance of an IndyCar.

As he moves, the ball seems drawn to him. He loves the ball, seems to always have it. And when he does, it is art, the ball glued to his shoelaces as he maneuvers this way and that.

``He has a tremendous amount of talent,'' said national team forward Eric Wynalda, the man Kirovski may someday replace. ``And the way he conducts himself and handles everything you don't treat him like a kid.''

Kirovski has never been timid.

He was not meek at San Pasqual High School in Escondido, where he helped the Eagles to a section title his sophomore year before leaving for England to play and attend school. He was not meek after a game against Honduras in December of 1994 when he scored late in the game to salvage a tie for the United States and afterward basically snubbed reporters, who complained to U.S. officials that the kid needed a good talking-to.

``He's a very confident person,'' Wynalda said. ``He's a good-looking kid, and he's also very good at soccer. Hey, we notice that confidence in him. We respect it.''

Go ahead, blame him.

Kirovski is young and about to make the big bucks playing for a first-division team in Europe. You think he doesn't know he's the real deal?

He would already be playing for Machester United's first team if not for some excessive British regulations. While he is still trying to work things out with the British government, he is exploring possibilities in other European countries. He said he has talked to ``top teams'' in Germany and Holland.

Sampson, the national team coach, has demanded Kirovski move on to a first-division team, if not in England then somewhere else in Europe.

``I'll be disappointed, but it won't be that bad,'' Kirovski said of the possibility he will not get to stay with the United. ``I'm already a player now. It's time for me to move on.''

As for his role with the national team, it is still developing. For now, he is a fine substitute for Wynalda. But Sampson is tinkering.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Jovan Kirovski could be America's best soccer player in the coming years.

Special to the Daily News

(2) KIROVSKY