Awer Mabil is proud to represent Australia as one of team’s refugees playing in the World Cup

CALIFORNIA, USA: Awer Mabil’s face quickly turned to pure joy. He beamed and fought his emotions, a reaction Australia’s veteran forward hardly could have seen coming.
It had nothing to do with a soccer result, either.

But rather a reflection that took him back to his tumultuous youth as a refugee and how some good fortune landed him in Australia for a new start in life.
Mabil looked into the audience during his media conference after training Tuesday and discovered a familiar face in David Basheer, the longtime commentator on Australia’s SBS network who had just offered a question days ahead of the Socceroos’ World Cup matchup against the United States on Friday in Seattle. Australia went on to lose 2-0.
“I grew up watching you,” Mabil said, so taken aback that he asked Basheer to repeat himself.
A touching moment, in this pressure-packed, every-four-years spectacle, and yet one more example of Mabil’s refreshing sincerity as one of the Aussies’ key faces at this World Cup, no matter how many minutes he plays.
He’s an ambassador from Down Under, to be sure.
Difficult start to his life
The 30-year-old Mabil also represents the persistence it took to prevail and get this far, given his daunting path.

He was born in Kakuma, Kenya, to South Sudanese parents who had escaped civil war, and he moved to Australia 20 years ago at age 10 through the country’s humanitarian resettlement program. He began playing organized soccer in Adelaide, South Australia state.
It’s fitting that Mabil is sharing his story during Refugee Week, with World Refugee Day on Saturday.
“It’s a Refugee Week and it’s a week that I would like to say to anybody that is misplaced all over the world that we are with you,” he said.