Refugee Awer Mabel helps Australia with a penalty kick on World Cup ticket: ‘I knew I’d score’ | foreign football

I knew I was going to score goals. “It was the only way to give thanks to Australia on behalf of my family,” said Mabel, who was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his parents fled Sudan. He lived as a kid on one meal a day and played ball a lot in Kenya to pass the time.

“I was born in a hut, a little hut. My hotel room here is definitely bigger than the hut, the room we had as a family in that camp,” Mabel said after the duel in Doha. . I am delighted to be able to thank Australia for the opportunity they gave my family.”

Mabel has been living in Australia since 2006 and started his professional football career with Adelaide United. Then he moved to the Danish club FC Midtjelland, who loaned him Mabil to Kasimpaşa.

National team coach Graham Arnold was under a lot of pressure because Australia failed to qualify directly for the World Cup. The Australian Federation had confidence in the national coach. “I am very speechless at the moment because no one in Australia has given us another chance,” Arnold said. Many players had the feeling that we didn’t get support from Australia. But they still believed in him and that’s the main thing. I’m going to enjoy a beer with them tonight.”

It would have been sooner if Arnold had stopped coaching the Australian national team earlier this year. The former Roda GC and NAC striker, among others, tested positive for coronavirus twice in three months this year. So the 58-year-old has been in isolation for a long time and has had a lot of trouble with that.

I don’t like talking to players over Zoom. It’s not my way of training,” Arnold said. “I can be honest about this, it was almost a reason to stop coaching the national team. The only reason I stayed was the many sacrifices the players made.”