Newcastle United star Garang Kuol may get the chance to show the world what he can do on Tuesday as Australia get their World Cup campaign under way against holders France. The 18-year-old Magpies star earned a surprise call-up to the Socceroos squad earlier this month, despite not starting a single competitive game for A-League side Central Coast Mariners.
Newcastle snapped up the teen sensation before the world got to fully appreciate his talent and will be hopeful he gets minutes on the international stage before he joins the club in January. However, Kuol's story may have been very different had it not been for a small football club based in Shepparton, Victoria, who gave the young attacker and his family a chance after arriving in Australia as refugees.
Kuol's family moved from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to Egypt when his older brother Alou was just three-years-old, a year before Garang was born in 2004. His father Mawien and mother Antonita worked as dry cleaners, while Antonita also had a job at a fruit factory.
