Awer Mabil has been awarded the 2018 FIFPro Merit Award, receiving global recognition for his Barefoot to Boots charity

Socceroo and ex Adelaide United attacker Awer Mabil wants to continue to give back to African refugees after he was awarded $25,000 and the FIFPro Merit Award.

Awer Mabil, back right, at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where Mabil was born and raised. Picture: Facebook

Awer Mabil will donate prize money received for his charity work towards building a youth centre or scholarships in Africa.

After raising the spirits of displaced children through soccer in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where he was born, the Socceroo and ex Adelaide United attacker has been awarded the 2018 FIFPro Merit Award.

The former South Sudanese refugee received global recognition for his Barefoot to Boots charity which he founded with his brother Awer Bul.

Awer Mabil has won a US $25,000 FIFPro prize for his charity Barefoot to Boots. The charity donates soccer kits and soccer boots from Australian soccer clubs to the people of the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where Mabil was born and raised. Picture: Facebook

The charity was awarded US $25,000 (about $32,000) from FIFPro, a worldwide representative organisation for 65,000 professional footballers.

“The funding will help a lot because I think we’re going to build a youth centre in Sudan hopefully in the near future,’’ Mabil, 23, said.

“And also giving scholarships to the refugees so they can also pursue their dreams here.

“My long term aim is to make the refugees lives easier, to make them realise their dreams can come true, we just have to set a pathway for them and give them the opportunity.”

Mabil’s soccer gifts to some of the 185,000 young refugees started when he asked his former Adelaide United teammates to donate their boots after visiting the camp for the first time four years ago.

Awer Mabil has won a US $25,000 FIFPro prize for his charity Barefoot to Boots. The charity donates soccer kits and soccer boots from Australian soccer clubs to the people of the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya where Mabil was born and raised. Picture: Facebook

His incredible rise from Kakuma saw Mabil first receive a scholarship from the Martyn Crook Foundation before earning a professional contract with the Reds.

He is currently contracted to Denmark’s FC Midtjylland and made his Socceroos debut this year dedicating his first international goal to his mother Agot Dau Atem.

“I lived there (Kakuma) for 10 years before I came to Australia (in 2006),’’ Mabil said.

“In 2014 I finally got a chance to be able to go back (to Kakuma) and I went back with my older brother (Awer Bul) we realised that after two or three weeks there the kids are playing barefoot.

“So me and my brother came back and then I realised I’m getting eight pairs of boots from Nike every season and the other players are doing the same.

“So I asked all the players to donate all their boots and from there that’s where Barefoot to Boots was born.”

The charity is now supplying children with boots and kits — many from all tiers of Australian soccer — in addition to education and healthcare.

“Barefoot to Boots is to use football as a platform to help refugees and that’s the way I feel I need to help refugees through football,’’ Mabil said.

“Football has helped me so much that I feel like I can give back through it.”

To encourage more players to take on the goodwill of Mabil’s work the Professional Footballer’s Australia — the player’s union — will kick start “United Playing Field” which is a community leadership program.

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