Aye, got the nickname Baby Distin when he started training with the first team iirc, Unsworth also called him the best one vs one tackler at the club.
Lad has the right mentality though, was impressed when rather than spend an extra week on holiday last summer he opted to go with Unsworth for preseason so he was ahead of the curve when he joined the first team for preseason a week later. As you've poointed out in the past, hard work and an eagerness to learn doesn't always make up for raw natural talent but it can certainly help especially for a coach like Koeman who seems to value pressing.
....I remember last pre-season, LL. Almost every shot of the training in Austria showed him out front in the running sessions.