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Aware Mabel will complete an exciting journey that began in a refugee camp to the world’s biggest sporting event when she plays for Australia at the World Cup in Qatar later this month, overcoming a personal tragedy along the way.
The ascent of this winger from a humble environment is like a dream, but the 27-year-old defending the Spanish colors of Cadiz hasn’t forgotten where he came from, and tells the Australian network “SBS” in this regard, “Without a doubt, this question. (his environment) was the basis for me. You gave me many values that are still with me today. “
“One of these qualities is humility – always being humble – is what I learned from this environment when I was a child.”
He was born in a refugee camp in Kenya after his parents fled the war in South Sudan and ate only one meal a day while hitting a plastic ball barefoot.
“I was born in a hut, a small hut, and there is no doubt that my hotel room was bigger than the hut my family had in the refugee camp.”
“I want to thank the Australian country for giving me, my relatives and my whole family the chance to live,” he added.
The owner of the second goal against Palestine and the first against Syria with a superb shot in the second and third round of the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar, tells of the “Barefoot to Boots” Foundation (from bare feet to shoes) which he founded to provide shoes for children in the camps. My family moved from Sudan to Kenya due to the war in 1994. A year later I was born in the camp and lived there for 10 years before moving to Australia with my relatives in 2006 . “
Anguish and childhood obviously lasts the life of a shy young man in Kenya.
In an interview with the BBC, he recounted his family’s daily suffering: “Everyone was given a kilogram of rice and then 4 kilograms for the family and 3 kilograms of wheat, so the division was difficult. We had one meal a night and the rest of the time you have to find the solutions yourself ”.
He started playing at the age of five in the Kakuma camp of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, then continued Manchester United with his legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson paying a dollar to watch him on TV two hours after. his hut. Someone went to tell me the result “.
He experienced the tragedy of his sister’s death in a car accident during his participation in the 2019 Asian Cup in Abu Dhabi, which left him in shock.
“This is my chance”
The harshness of life gave Mabel another chance when he moved to Australia in 2006 as part of a humanitarian program: “I said to myself ‘This is my chance, if I work hard anything can happen and I can chase mine. dreams’ + “.
Thanks to football he learned English and began to express his feelings: at the age of sixteen he signed with Adelaide FC and with him he won the Cup in 2014.
It is true that due to the color of his skin, in his new life he had to face permanent racism and bullying, as one of his neighbors attacked him and asked him to return to his country, but he is proud to represent Australia. . they are racist, but this country is for everyone “.
Then a new phase began in Mabel’s life, so she said goodbye to Australia, which joined the Asian Confederation in 2006, heading to the old continent. Thanks to his speed and dribbling prowess, he joined Danish club Midtylland in 2015 at the age of 20, and was loaned out in his first two seasons in Denmark and Portugal, where his two clubs were relegated to second division.
A fall unparalleled compared to the one the player suffered in his childhood: “I left at nineteen and I expected to play right away. But in reality I was not ready for European football. Relegation twice was mentally difficult for me. “, he said. he continued: “I will not change it, because what happened has made me stronger and more capable. The times I live in now.
He concludes: “Football has served me a lot. I want to pay off the debt with the children. The long-term goal is to make life easier for refugees.”
