"Everything is possible, so keep going." Awer Mabil said that this week ahead of Australia's World Cup clash with the United States — and coming from him, it's not a platitude. It's biography.
The 30-year-old forward was born in Kakuma, Kenya, to South Sudanese parents who fled civil war. He arrived in Australia at age 10 through the country's humanitarian resettlement program and grew up playing organised football in Adelaide. Twenty years later, he's at a World Cup, speaking during Refugee Week, with World Refugee Day landing the same day as the USA match.
The timing is not lost on him. "It's a coincidence again that it's Refugee Week in the World Cup and also at the same time you have many refugees in the team," he said. "And now we're representing Australia."
A refugee cohort with real World Cup pedigree
Mabil isn't alone in that dressing room. He considers himself a "big brother" to teammates Mo Touré and Nestory Irankunda — both fellow refugees from Africa. Irankunda, just 20 years old, became the youngest Australian to score a World Cup goal when he netted in the 2-0 win over Turkey in Vancouver. That's the kind of marker that changes how a betting market reads a team's attacking threat.
Mabil himself has been a squad rotation figure this tournament — limited substitute appearances at the 2022 World Cup, no minutes in the opener this year. But his value to this group clearly isn't being measured in minutes. Senior players at tournaments shape culture as much as they do results, and Mabil is sharp enough to know it.
"Coming in as a senior player I think is more mental — you have to be present for the younger ones. Sometimes you want to slap them," he said, laughing. The self-awareness there is useful. Not every veteran at 30 accepts that role without bitterness.
What this means for Australia heading into Friday
The Socceroos beat Turkey, they've got momentum, and a young core with nothing to fear. Defender Alessandro Circati put it plainly: "I don't want to be the underdogs for the rest of my life." That's a team that's shifting its own identity in real time.
Whether Mabil features against the USA remains to be seen — but his presence off the pitch is already doing work. A viral pre-tournament video, a composed media presence, and a locker room role that clearly resonates with the younger players around him.
"We all belong to this world together," he said. On a World Cup stage, during Refugee Week, with three refugees in the same squad — that's a sentence with some weight behind it.
