“I was six years old when we moved to Australia and we lived in Adelaide at first before moving to Melbourne at the end of 2011.” Australian international footballer Thomas Deng advised.

That move to Australia in 2003 was to be a huge move for the family. Deng’s parents had already fled the civil war in Sudan and settled in Nairobi where Thomas was born. Now they were leaving Africa to embark on a new life in a new country.

Thomas admitted that his memories of Kenya are limited, “I have more memories of Adelaide. It was the first place we went to and it was where my brother and me began playing soccer, and actually taking it seriously. We played at an Italian club and spent five or six years there. Adelaide Blue Eagles was our first club.”

He did admit however that his passion for the game of football was born in Africa. “I had a passion for football before coming to Australia. I would always follow my older brothers around and play with the local kids on the street and I fell in love with it at a very young age, and I have just kept it up all the way through till now.”

Like many migrants arriving in Australia it was a leap into the unknown for the Deng family. Yet for Thomas and his brothers they had school and football to help them settle in and give them a foundation.

“That was the scary part not knowing how it was going to be.” Thomas recalled. “It was a really different culture that my family and I had to adjust to. So the first few years wasn’t too easy, making that adjustment was hard, but I think football and school made it much easier to make friends and relate to others.”

It was the great African leader Nelson Mandela who said that sport has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Thomas and his brother Peter would agree.

“Football was a place I felt I belonged. With football you don’t need to speak a language. I just felt an acceptance as soon as I joined that club, – Adelaide Blue Eagles – everyone was very welcoming and it made the transition a lot easier.”

While many would have expected some level of racism towards the brothers Thomas insists that wasn’t the case, which is a credit to the sport. “No not really I don’t think we suffered much, I think in the sporting culture it’s a bit different, the soccer clubs that I have been to were all very multicultural. We had different backgrounds and different ethnicities, so it was very rare to find.”

It is heartening to hear this for it was the Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins who also played football in Adelaide, but in the 1950’s at a time when the Aboriginal people did not have a vote, who wrote that Port Thistle’s fans “treated me like a human being.” He went on to state that when playing football “that was where I first felt free.”

Just as Thomas was settling into life in Adelaide his family moved again. This time they moved a shorter distance, to Melbourne. 

“I was about 15 when we moved to Melbourne,” he said. “The difficult part having to move States was making new friends and going to a new school. It could be nerve-wracking being the new kid on the block. The first few months was hard, but once I made friends and I found out that a lot of them played football that made it a lot easier, again because I joined the same soccer club that they were playing at. We hung out all the time at school and then we would go to training together so we had a really good bond, and I still speak to a lot of my friends that I played with before.”

The club that he joined was one of the largest in Melbourne, and a side that used to compete in the National Soccer League; a competition that preceded the A-League.

“That was the time that football got real serious for me.” Thomas recalled. “I was about 17 years old and I was playing at Green Gully at the time when I got the news that Melbourne Victory had invited me for the trials. As soon as I heard that I was shocked and happy. I told my family, who were very proud of what I had achieved. Going into the trials I was very relaxed, and eventually I made the squad. I remember it like it was yesterday. I played one season and then the season after I got signed with the senior team, so it all happened quite fast. For me that was the time I realized I have got a shot at this, an opportunity that I can actually make it and flourish in that environment.”

It certainly had happened very fast. However that was due to the hard work that Thomas put in to make the most of the opportunity that he was presented with.

In 2015, his first season with the club, they won the FFA Cup and he came on as a late substitute. In 2017-18 he was a member of the Melbourne Victory team that won the Grand Final 1-0 over Newcastle jets.

“It all happened very fast,” Thomas remembers. “If you track back a few years I was in Adelaide, we had an African tournament and I was wearing a Victory shirt and some guy asked me ‘do you play for Victory?’ I was like ‘no, I don’t,’ and then four or five years later I am playing for the senior team! A crazy story, and me and my brother laugh about it all the time.”

Being born in Kenya of South Sudanese parents Thomas was eligible to play international football for both of these countries, as well as Australia. It was his new home that came calling first, selecting him for the Under 20’s, and Thomas admitted it was an easy decision to make.  

“I guess I was just waiting for any opportunity to pop up and the Australian national team popped up first. I thought it was a great idea, as it was a kind of way for me to give back for all the opportunities and all the good things that I have gained through coming to Australia.” He paused thoughtfully and then added, “I just felt it was the right thing to do at the time, and I think it’s paid off.”

That would appear to be very much the case. He moved on to represent the Australian under23’s and impressed at the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship in Qatar. He had a loan spell playing in the Netherlands before returning to Melbourne Victory.

Then in 2018 he made his full international debut for the Socceroos against Kuwait, a moment that he will understandably never forget.  

“It was a special night, and something I am going to cherish for the rest of my life. It was even better to make my debut on the same day as Awer Mabil. Him and me go back many years, childhood friends who went to the same school in Adelaide, lived in the same area, and I have known him for over ten years. So it is something really special, and something the other kids can really look up to and aspire to do in the future.”

So being an African-born Australian does he feel a responsibility on his still young shoulders to motivate the next generation, and be a role model to them?

“Definitely, I hope it’s an inspiration for the younger generation and others in the African community as well, that if you do work hard you will get the opportunity. It’s not going to be denied to anyone as long as you work hard and you do the right things,” he explained. “I think it is a privilege every time I go into camp and I wear the green and gold, it’s a privilege and a honour to represent Australia.  For the younger kids that look up to me and Awer, every time they turn on the TV and they see us playing I’d like to think they get a sense of hope and a bit of drive that they can achieve that dream as well.”

It is for that reason, wanting to make other Africans new to Australia find their place and live out their dreams that Thomas has agreed to be an Ambassador for PANSA, as he elaborated.  

“I think it’s a great idea what PANSA are trying to do, and it’s great to give back to the community using our platforms, those of the soccer players, AFL players, and other athletes. I think it is great for us to use our platforms while we can to inspire others and help the community before we retire.“

Thomas’s football journey now sees him in Japan having signed for the Urawa Red Diamonds, and he can’t wait to get started.

“Thanks to football I have been pretty much everywhere in the world. I am enjoying Japan. I am settled now just waiting for the season to start up. I have enjoyed everything, the culture, the people are very nice here, and I can’t wait to play my first season in the J-League.”

Thomas however has not lost sight of how quick his rise to the top has been, and neither does he forget those who have supported him on that journey.

“I do always think about how far I have come and how quickly it has happened. So I am very grateful for the opportunities, and everything I have been able to achieve so far. My mum has been very supportive from a very young age. She used to drop me and my brother everywhere in Adelaide, and me in Melbourne.” Thomas’s older brother Peter has represented South Sudan at full international level making his debut in 2016.  

“My mum has always been supportive of us, and through football I can now help my mum out, and help my family out financially as well, which is a good thing.”  

Thomas may not say it in so many words, but he knows that as hard as it was to move to Australia for him as a child, the journey to get there was even harder for his mum. That is why he is determined that she will share the spoils of his success.

Never were the words of Mother Theresa more true in his parents sacrifices and his success, “its not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts.”