Garang Kuol. This is a player who is yet to start a professional match of football, but is in Qatar with the Socceroos for the FIFA Men’s World Cup.
The 18-year-old Central Coast Mariners sensation has lit up the Isuzu UTE A-Leagues, will join Premier League powerhouse Newcastle United in January and is in line to face reigning champions France at Qatar 2022 on Wednesday (AEDT).
It is a truly remarkable story for a player so young and early in their footballing journey.
As Everton manager, Frank Lampard could come up against Newcastle-bound Kuol, who is preparing to take the World Cup by storm.
“I think it’s a two-way thing with those situations where the player themselves can learn a great deal. The experience of travelling to a high-level tournament, working with experienced players,” Lampard told KEEPUP, when asked about Kuol’s selection and the parallels between him and Theo Walcott’s inclusion for Germany 2006.
“Fulfilling the expectations and pressure the World Cup brings. It’s a great thing for the player, no matter how many minutes he may play.
“I also think for the squad, it’s great to bring youthful, energetic players who have big talent. It’s a two-way thing. It’s nice to see young players to be trusted enough to get called up to go away like that. It will be great for him.
“Then you wish him well when he comes to the Premier League because, again, it will be a challenge in terms of the step up but clearly he is a big talent otherwise he wouldn’t have been recruited or highly spoken of.”
Lampard has been in Kuol’s shoes as a talented youngster rising through the ranks, firstly at West Ham, before becoming a legend for Chelsea and England.
In Australia for the Sydney Super Cup, Lampard – who also revealed he was close to joining Melbourne City on a temporary deal before his New York City switch in 2015 – was asked about Kuol and dealing with the expectations and social media.
“It’s tough. It’s tougher for the modern player than it was in my day because of social media,” said Lampard, whose Everton edged Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic in a penalty shoot-out on Sunday before Wednesday’s clash against Western Sydney Wanderers at CommBank Stadium.
“In terms of how did I deal with it…I just kept my head down and kept working and over the years you build layers of toughness in order to deal with that. It’s not easy, some players maybe don’t get over that because it’s tough, it can affect your development.
“I was lucky, I probably had a strong base around me and that made it good for me as a base to go on and have the career I did. As a coach now you understand the environment for players is much more severe, for good and for bad.
“They can get the trappings if they do well in all senses and a lot of plaudits but if they don’t then social media is very reactive and you can’t ask or tell players not to engage in it because they do, it’s their life.
“Some of it you just have to deal with with the players, some of it I just wish there was a bit more balance from people on the outside who engage around the game who give these young players, young men, young women in sport an understanding of the pressures that come with the job because they’re people at the end of the day.
“That’s the tough part and the players have to deal with that. My job as a coach is to try and support them as much as I can.”
