In 1989, a 17-year-old Dwight Yorke was so good in a Tobago XI against Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly in the Caribbean that Graham Taylor snapped him up straight away and changed his life forever.
He knows better than most how big an occasion Wednesday night is for some of our A-Leagues All Stars, with Barcelona their opponents at Accor Stadium.
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“I want to play every player,” he told KEEPUP.
“I think it is important. I have been there…I make it known to the players: we are playing everybody.”
Contrary to the idea of it being just an exhibition game, Yorke, who describes this role as a “tremendous honour”, knows what an opportunity it presents for those wearing the All Stars kit.
“We want the young players. We have a 16-year-old…who thought at 16 you’d be playing against Barcelona!
“He has a minder, a guardian with him! That’s the magnitude of it…what do you tell a 16-year-old?
“Go express yourself, go play. You can’t expect too much from someone like that.
“He is good enough, he has certainly showed some good touches. He is raw – that might be a problem for them (Barcelona) – a player who doesn’t give a monkeys and just plays!”
He continued: “I think it is such a great opportunity for these young players.
“Who doesn’t get worked up playing against Barcelona?
“It is a chance for some of these guys to express themselves, it is such a huge occasion.”
At the conclusion of a season themed Here Comes The Future, it is only fitting that this collection from across the competition features a sprinkling of young talent, as well as three teenagers: 16-year-old Nestroy Irankunda, 17-year-old Garang Kuol and 19-year-old Alexander Popovic.
“We want to show the world how much young talent we have in the A-Leagues, and both Garang and Reno have produced some extraordinary moments this season,” A-Leagues Commissioner Greg O’Rourke said.
“It’s important that as well as some of our decorated, experienced stars, we put the next generation in the spotlight – and to earn their places, both have shown fans what they can do this year.
“Last year we saw Alou Kuol take the A-League by storm, and now his brother is threatening to do the same, while Reno Piscopo is an Olyroo with great vision and ability.”
Adelaide United’s sensation Irankunda, a Barcelona fan who idolises Ousmane Dembele, could hardly contain himself at Tuesday night’s open training session.
“This is crazy,” he said, almost quivering. “I have no words; this is my favourite club, to me my favourite player Dembele is here as well. I am really shocked.”
Mention the word Barcelona to Kuol, and he just simply says: “Phwoah.”
“Biggest team in the world basically,” he said, before smiling through the story of how he found out.
“Never thought I would be versing them especially at this age now, crazy.
“I didn’t think there was a chance – with the nominee system, you could only pick five players from each club (to be in the fan XI), and I wasn’t in that so I didn’t think about.
“Then I was at the airport, and a guy from the club came up to me and said ‘Garang come here … ‘you’ve been selected for the All Stars’.
“I said ‘what!’ Crazy.”
Kuol, a late season sensation who finished with a goal tally 4.3 times his Expected Goals mark (four goals in nine appearances, when his xG was 0.9), knows this is one hell of an opportunity.
“(I’m looking forward to) playing in front of a lot of people and to just see the level, what it is like, the difference, and how far I am from that level (that I aspire to),” he said.
It isn’t just the Barcelona experience of immense value from these three days.
“It is good to see the different personalities amongst the top players in the league,” he said of his experience in camp at Homebush.
“How they act. How they are as people; it is a good experience.”
He quipped: “They’re just top players, it is where you want to be. You look around: he’s a beast, he’s a beast.”
Kuol’s selection, one of the wildcards chosen by O’Rourke, came after he was part of Central Coast’s storming end to the season. It also came one season after his brother, Alou, was a rising star, and earned a move to SV Sandhausen on loan from Stuttgart in Germany, as a result.
“We have a group chat with me and three of my brothers,” he said.
“I score and they go, ‘what the hell is going on, he is scoring every week!’ Banter. They love it. (They say) keep going Garang, we want to see more.”
It is Yorke who has the chance to play Kuol, but it is Nick Montgomery who unleashed Kuol, and someone the teen speaks of with reverence.
Could he have ever expected a season like this?
“I hoped it; my coach’s saw this the most. Even when I was coming on, I had just come back from injury, but Monte, and the coaches, I don’t know why, they still took the risk of playing me…how much belief they have in me, I respect that a lot,” said Garang Kuol.
“The main thing is self-belief but when the people around you believe in you as well, it just boosts you.”
He concluded: “I got brought in from an NPL side in Victoria – the coach didn’t owe me that.
“He took the gamble. He chose to bring me to the team. When I look back that is the main point in my football.”
A point at which, if you’d asked him if he’d be sitting in camp, in Sydney, in May, readying to play with Barcelona, he would say the chance out of 10 was zero.
“I had surgery on my knee around February. (I was thinking) this would slow down the process, put me back, but I was back after six weeks…was moving well, (thinking) what is this!?
“I was always in the gym working, trying to help me knee; I was also watching videos of different players, concentrating and focusing on the stuff they do.
“I watched it and took it into my game.”
A game that will get the chance to sparkle, against Barcelona.
- Additional reporting: Joseph Esposito.
