Garang Kuol named to World Cup squad for Australia

Having turned 18 years old last September, the freshest Magpie Garang Kuol has been called-up by Australia’s men’s national football team as part of their 26-man squad to compete in the World Cup through the next few weeks.

The full list released by the Socceroos includes 17 players getting their first nod at the biggest stage—the World Cup—with Kuol leading the way as the youngest of all men who made the cut for the Aussies.

Kuol, along with teammate (at Australian side Central Coast Mariners) Jason Cummings and Keanu Baccus (from Scottish side St Mirren) are the only three players getting to the World Cup with just one cap under their belt. Cummings already has one international goal, though, having scored in his debut with the Aussies.

The Socceroos squad features nine members of the Tokyo 2020 contingent, the most recent high-profile tournament in which Australia took part: Nathaniel Atkinson, Keanu Baccus, Thomas Deng, Cameron Devlin, Joel King, Riley McGree, Kye Rowles, Harry Souttar and Mitchell Duke.

While Kuol has yet to don the Newcastle kit in an official game, he already did so a few weeks ago when he was present in the club offices to sign his deal with the Magpies ahead of the 2023 calendar year—Kuol will join NUFC next January, although it’s yet to be known whether he will remain in the club or go on loan at another European club for the remainder of the 2022-23 season.

Kuol was originally born in Egypt but he moved to Australia with his family, joining his current club as recently as January 2021.

In his international debut during the last break, Kuol played twenty minutes off the pine and he did enough to force a penalty that helped Australia solidify their lead over NZE after the kick was converted into the final 2-0 score.

Garang Kuol became the youngest player in an Aussie senior-team camp following his inclusion in the Socceroos’ 31-man squad for their last international-break games. So much so, that he also became the youngest player to be called up to the senior national team since Harry Kewell back in April 1996.

Kuol has now solidified that accolade with a true call-up for the biggest club and nation competition, the World Cup, ahead of his move to Newcastle.