Thomas Deng, Garang Kuol and Awer Mabil are the first Sudanese-Australians to represent the Socceroos at a World Cup.Credit:Chad Gibson
Playing for the Socceroos was a lifelong ambition for Awer Mabil. Reaching the World Cup was another bucket-list item, now happily ticked off.
But his real dream is to be replaced.
“For me, my biggest goal is to push the limits for African kids to try to reach,” Mabil said.
“Because I know somebody will be better than me, and that’s my aim – they come through and go on to do bigger things than I’ve done. That’s why every day I’ve dedicated myself to working hard, to pushing those limits, so they can know, ‘OK, one of us can make it there. I’m going to make it even further.’”
Want a glimpse of the real Australia? Look no further than the Socceroos. This national team, more than any other, has always been the truest reflection of the country’s ethnic diversity and shifting demographics.
A century ago, when Australia played its first international match against New Zealand in 1922, the team was filled with workers of English, Scottish and Irish stock. After World War II, as an influx of European migrants set sail in search of a better life, it was Italians, Greeks, Croatians, Serbians, Macedonians and so many others proudly wearing the green and gold.
It’s fitting that the Socceroos’ first match in Qatar is against France, given roughly half of their squad is infused with African flavour. Superstars like Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and injured midfielders N’golo Kante and Paul Pogba, all grew up in France, but can trace their heritage to countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritius, Mali and Guinea.
Australia’s recent migration patterns are not dissimilar, and it’s starting to show in the ranks of the Socceroos. Four members of Graham Arnold’s 26-man squad have African heritage: Keanu Baccus, who was born in Durban, and Mabil, Thomas Deng and Newcastle United-bound Garang Kuol, who were all born in refugee camps to South Sudanese parents, and are the first players from that country to represent the Socceroos.
Garang Kuol is one of the most exciting talents Australia has seen in many years.Credit:Getty
These are the barrier-breakers, but there’s more to come.
“It’s only just the start,” said Mabil, who plays for Cadiz in Spain’s La Liga.
“It’s really exciting for Australian football in general. As a country, we’re very multicultural. Now to see it in the national team, it’s going to be a big motivation for the kids from Africa, now, to see that they can also be there.
“I think it will make everything better: it will make the A-League better, the Socceroos better, the country better. It’s only a matter of time.”
The numbers say it all: in the first season of the A-League, in 2005-06, there were just two Australian players of African descent. Last season, there were 25. There were big waves beforehand, but it is only now that Australian football is truly embracing their attributes and is ready to accept their contributions.
They’re not just filling out the squads, either. Among them are some of the most promising talents the sport has seen in many years: explosive attacking weapons like Kuol, Mabil and Adelaide United’s 16-year-old sensation Nestory Irankunda, natural-born goalscorers like Kusini Yengi, who scored the winner in last weekend’s Sydney derby for the Wanderers, and hard-working, ball-playing defenders like Deng.
“Everybody mostly migrated between 2000 and 2010 – all those younger boys now are growing into older men,” said Garang’s older brother, Alou Kuol, the former Central Coast Mariners star and Olyroos representative now at VfB Stuttgart in Germany.
“Back then, we didn’t really have anybody to look up to like us – just the people you see on TV like Tim Cahill, Mark Bresciano. I don’t even think anyone in our family had A-League on TV. But now that everybody’s starting to take A-League seriously, they can see that they can do it also, and see what can come of it. It’s going up.
Kusini Yengi scored the winner for the Wanderers in last weekend’s Sydney derby.Credit:Getty
“We all took different paths, it’s not clear-cut, but people are starting to see what we can do.”
Not only have these players defied the odds to get where they are in life, but they have also defied an Australian system criticised for its rigid pay-to-play structure, which prices out the working-class and many migrants from joining NPL clubs. There are eight children in the Kuol family and the registration fees tally up pretty quickly.
“It’s really expensive for the first or second generations of Africans coming here. Our parents, they work a lot to try to provide for us to just live. And on the side, you have to pay two grand or whatever it is for registration fees. That’s a lot,” Mabil said. “I think we’re losing a lot of talent through that.”
Many players have developed in spite of the system, not because of it – through unstructured play in parks, backyards and futsal courts, and in unofficial tournaments like the African Cup of Nations (AFCON), where friends band together to form teams named after various African countries. Each state or territory has its own version, run by different community bodies, and a bit like rugby league’s Koori Knockout, where Indigenous NRL players represent their mobs – you never know which future or current A-League star might show up.
Charles M’Mombwa, who now plays with Macarthur FC, played in NSW’s African Cup.
In 2013, Mabil, Deng and Valentino Yuel all played for the South Sudan team that won the South Australian AFCON. Long before he burst onto the scene with the Central Coast Mariners, and got himself a Premier League contract with Newcastle United, Garang Kuol was playing for Team Chad in Victoria.
“I remember, I was playing for Team Somalia,” said Mohamed Nur, a Melbourne-based football coach. “I don’t know how old he was, but you can see he had ability. He scored this cracking goal against us, and a couple of years later, he’s doing what he’s doing.”
The European migrants of the ’50s and ’60s started up their own clubs, like South Melbourne Hellas, Sydney Croatia, and Adelaide City Juventus, which would become the epicentre of their respective ethnic groups as they adjusted to their new surroundings in Australia. Some African communities have done the same, but lack the resources and infrastructure to climb the football pyramid, and the barriers involved are much bigger today than they once were. The AFCON tournaments, then, fulfil that role in bringing people together through football.
And it’s here where African football leaders offer a stark warning: the talent coming through now is great, but Australia is missing out on so many more potential stars who are not captured by the sport’s official pathways, and may not reach their full potential unless authorities embrace and engage with these tournaments on their own terms.
Football Empowerment is a not-for-profit organisation based in Melbourne’s western suburbs, started up by a group of African-Australian youths who are using the sport as a force for good within their communities, and mentor budding young players – many of whom have gone on to become professionals. They work with various councils, charities and community foundations.
“We’re not people that just complain about the fees,” said Nur, 29, one of the driving forces behind the program along with co-founder and director Tom Yabio.
“We’re more, ‘OK, there is this problem that exists, a lot of these kids have the ability. What solutions or alternative pathways can we provide to get exposed to that level of football, showcase themselves and climb the ladder?’”
Former Joeys and South Australia Sports Institute coach Martyn Crook.Credit:Facebook
Yabio, a former Australian under-17s representative, was originally inspired by his old coach, South Australian Sports Institute (SASI) technical director Martyn Crook, who sadly passed away in 2008 of a suspected heart attack while coaching the Joeys at a tournament in California. Crook was ahead of the curve and could see the impact African players could have on Australian football.
“He was the first one. Martyn Crook said Australia could be the next France. This is 15 years ago,” Yabio said. “When he was the coach of the Joeys team, he had seven African players in that team. I can definitely see it.”
Mabil, a SASI graduate, was awarded a scholarship by a foundation created in Crook’s honour in 2011. A disproportionate number of African players who have emerged from the A-League are from Adelaide: Mabil, Deng, Yuel, Yengi, Irankunda, Elvis Kamsoba, the three Toure brothers, Al Hassan, Mohamed and Musa. The list goes on.
As Nur explains, it’s down to a perfect storm of circumstances: population size, NPL clubs who, unlike in Sydney and Melbourne, don’t spend big money on players and are happy to give opportunities to youth, and a professional club in Adelaide United with a reputation for blooding the best of them.
“Why Adelaide? It’s the culture,” Nur said.
“When you look at the migration, the largest communities are Perth and Melbourne … Adelaide actually has a much smaller population mass of African players. But they’re the ones getting these opportunities because of the size of Adelaide as a city – it’s easier to spot the talent, but also the model that Adelaide United has, they’re willing to invest in young local talent.”
Awer Mabil is one of many African talents who broke through at Adelaide United.Credit:Getty
It’s a frightening thought for the Socceroos, but had the Kuols grown up in Melbourne, they could have easily slipped through the cracks. Instead, their family settled in Shepparton, a two-hour drive north, where the Goulburn Valley Suns, the local NPL team, allowed them to play for free.
“If they were in Melbourne, no one’s giving them opportunities. And we know that,” Yabio said.
“They went to a small club where they get around you, support you, but if they were in Melbourne, any of the NPL clubs, no chance. OK, we’ve got a player in the Premier League now … how did he get there? Shepparton, community club. What’s the entrance to participation? Pretty much nothing. That’s the answer.”
Yabio and Nur are full of ideas as to how Australia can further capitalise on the African opportunity. They say coaches and clubs need to be more open-minded, particularly when it comes to players who, for financial reasons, weren’t part of the NPL system from a young age, and aren’t part of their databases.
Football Empowerment fields teams in regular friendly matches against the three Melbourne-based A-League clubs for talent ID purposes, but they’re confident they could put together a side that could give the Young Socceroos a run for their money and might unearth a future star. “We will be able to not only put on a very competitive game, but we might shock some people,” Nur said.
They’d also like to see Football Australia get behind their program and stage an annual State of Origin-style tournament involving the best African players from each state’s AFCON and bring scouts along to watch.
Each state has its own version of the African Cup of Nations.Credit:Ann Odong/African Cup NSW
The game must act quickly, Yabio and Nur say, because rival codes are stealing a march. Each AFL club, for example, has a ‘Category B’ rookie spot for use on players from “non-traditional” footy backgrounds. No such equivalent exists within A-League squads – and while clubs can offer nine ‘scholarship’ contracts, they are for under-20 players only, which means late bloomers miss out.
Garang Kuol, like his brother Alou, who once trialled for Richmond’s Next Generation academy, could have easily been another member of the growing South Sudanese brood in the AFL – if he didn’t love the world game so much.
“I played a bit of footy, I was good at that too,” he said. “My friends always said to me, ‘I actually, genuinely think you could get drafted.’ I’m just like, ‘I’m not playing footy, bro.’ There’s no Champions League, there’s no FA Cup – like, come on man.”
Make it easier for players like him to follow their passion, Mabil says, and the Socceroos could go to the next level.
“The talent we will get through is going to be ridiculous,” he said. “If you put in the right structure in, and give these opportunities to the less fortunate, or the ones who can’t afford it, then mate … it’ll be amazing.”
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