Socceroo Awer Mabil on how football brings him joy
Before last weekend’s Asian Cup warm-up friendly against Oman, Graham Arnold took Awer Mabil aside and told him he would buy a ticket just to watch him play.
Before last weekend’s Asian Cup warm-up friendly against Oman, Graham Arnold took Awer Mabil aside and told him he would buy a ticket just to watch him play.
“Because you excite me, go and excite me,” the Socceroos coach said.
“I wouldn’t pay to watch many players, but I’d pay to watch you.”
Mabil’s eyes lit up and his five-foot-nine stature almost visibly grew right in front of him.
Then he went out and scored his second international goal.
“It’s something amazing to hear that he said that,” Mabil said.
“I’ll remind him, I’ll say it’s an expensive game.”
SEE BELOW: AZIZ BEHICH ON AUSTRALIA’S APPROACH
There’s been a lot of that happening to Mabil since October, when the quietly spoken Denmark-based winger completed his journey from Kenya’s Kakuma refugee camp to the Socceroos dressing room with a maiden international goal on debut against Kuwait.
The moment, shared with fellow South Sudanese refugee debutant Thomas Deng, made global headlines.
Now the 23-year-old aims to use his on-field trickery to not only help the Socceroos defend the Asian Cup, but also give African kids in his adopted country a role model to follow.
Even as a five-year-old, living in a cramped mud hut with his mum, brother and sister and surviving on paltry food rations, Mabil found joy in kicking a ball around with his friends.
There was something about the feeling that, even for a brief moment, helped him forget it all.
As he grew older he became more aware of the feeling and sought it out, both through playing and walking the two hours to the nearest TV to watch his beloved Manchester United.
“Football has done everything for me and has given me everything,” he said.
“The best part of it is I can express myself and it gets rid of my traumas.
“When I play football, I don’t think of anything else except to have fun and enjoy, and just forget the troubles.
“Growing up I was a big fan, going to football games and watching people play.
“When I see someone do something entertaining it makes me want to come back and enjoy the game.
“So my personality is always to enjoy – enjoy life and enjoy myself on the field. And I feel like I have that role now to make young kids or people who come and watch the game enjoy the game, and also of course a win.”
Having resettled in Adelaide in 2006 and played for Adelaide United before his move to FC Midtjylland three years ago, Mabil has been in fine touch, so much so that Martin Boyle’s untimely tournament-ending injury and Mat Leckie’s certain absence from the group stage opens up a big opportunity for him and Chris Ikonomidis.
Off the field Mabil is also making waves, recently recognised for his refugee work through his foundation Barefoot to Boots with the 2018 FIFPro Merit award.
And the racism he’s experienced growing up has added extra incentive to his journey.
“I keep an eye on some things that are happening within the African community, especially in Melbourne, so it was actually really nice to get something positive,” he said.
“A lot of people focus on the negatives which doesn’t cover everything. There’s positive and negative to everyhing, there’s two sides to the story, you can’t just generalise people on just one thing or a few individuals.
“So it was really nice to open doors for African Australians, to show them that you can do something with your life and if you want your dreams you just have to work hard.”
Behich: We want to continue the momentum
The Socceroos are fixed on stopping Jordan playing in Sunday’s Asian Cup-opener in the same way they shut down Oman
Australia made Oman, who’d conceded only five goals in their previous 15 games, crumble in a 5-0 warm-up walloping.
The task will be tougher when playing for points against Vital Borkelmans’ Jordan outfit in Al Ain, but left-back Aziz Behichsays the approach will be the same.
“We want to do that against any opponent really, whether it be Oman or Jordan,” Behich said.
“With Arnie it’s all about what we do. If we do the right things, what we’ve been working on on the pitch, it’ll show on theweekend.
“We showed that against Oman. Oman was a team that hadn’t lost in 13 or 14 games with their defensive structure.
“For us to score the amount of goals we did shows we’re on the right track.
“Since we got into camp it’s been about ourselves really, but at the same time the coaching staff show us on the trainingpitch what to expect from Jordan and what they’ll do.
“We want to start this tournament with a bang. The other night we put on a good performance against Oman, a dominant one,and we want to continue that momentum.”
Behich will have his hands full marking rising star Musa Al-Taamari, the 21-year-old winger who plies his trade for Cypriot heavyweights APOEL.
On the whole, coach Graham Arnold’s aim is to shut down Jordan’s strengths via his newly implemented flexible attacking style.
“When I watch that game back Oman have qualities, we just didn’t let them use them,” Arnold said.
“There were periods in the game where we did let them use it and it showed they’ve got some qualities.
“But we’re not allowing these teams to play. It’s like against Kuwait and South Korea, and if you want to talk about a topteam we did it to South Korea.
“We harassed them, chased them, we were on the front foot.”
- Emma Kemp
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