The Newcastle United plan for Garang Kuol
Garang Kuol joined Newcastle United two years ago ahead of the 2022 World Cup, but the winger's yet to play a competitive game for the club.
Newcastle United signed a World Cup-bound player two years ago today.
Yet that exciting signing is yet to make a competitive appearance for the club.
There was a degree of excitement among fans when Newcastle agreed a deal with Australian club Central Coast Mariners for Garang Kuol ahead of the mid-season 2022 World Cup.
Kuol went on to come off the bench against defending champions France and eventual winners Argentina in Qatar.
When he came off the bench against Argentina in a Round of 16 game aged 18, Kuol became the youngest player since Pele to feature in a World Cup knockout game. With Australia trailing 2-1, Kuol forced a save from Emiliano Martinez with a 97th-minute shot at the Al Rayyan Stadium. Had Martinez not kept that effort out, the tournament could have ended very differently.
The pacy forward’s appearances at the World Cup came just seven months after his A-League debut. He had earned the call-up after an explosive breakthrough campaign which saw him score, aged 17, five minutes into his Mariners debut.
Loan moves
Kuol might have been ready for World Cup football, but he wasn’t quite ready for Premier League football when he arrived in England.
United head coach Eddie Howe was quick to reveal that Kuol needed more first-team experience elsewhere after the deal was confirmed, and loan spells at north of the border with Heart of Midlothian and Dutch club Volendam followed.
"He’s had a dramatic rise, and he’s in a position where he excites everybody, but there needs to be some patience shown, and, touch wood, we’ll look after him, and he’ll go out on loan and develop,” said Howe at the time.
"Hopefully, he can play a part in our future.”
At Hearts, Kuol had to contend with a managerial change, and he found his opportunities limited. He scored made eight appearances and scored one goal during his time at Tynecastle.
Two years on, Kuol, born in a refugee camp in Egypt to Sudanese parents amid a conflict in his family’s homeland, is yet to play a competitive game for Newcastle, with his only two first-team appearances having come in the summer’s end-of-season trip to Australia, the country he moved to as an infant.
Kuol’s early rise was meteoric, but it was always going to be a challenge to maintain that trajectory in Europe given the intense competition for places at top-level clubs.
“Everyone on the field is trying to play ahead of you,” said Kuol. “It’s all competition wherever you are. That’s the one thing you learn.”
It’s certainly been a steep learning curve for Kuol, one of a number of hugely-talented, up-and-coming players recruited by the club, which sold on last year’s signing Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and Hove Albion for a sizeable profit this summer, over the past couple of years.
Minteh’s sale, which was needed for the club to comply with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules, underscored how a young player can help the club financially without even playing a first-team game of football.
The hope is that Kuol, under contract until 2026, can still make a breakthrough at United.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Kuol – who grew up a couple of hours from Melbourne in Sheppteron – “left Australia as the Socceroos’ boy wonder”.
Now, the country’s football fans are wondering when he will again get into his stride after a tough first couple of years away from home.
When they signed Kuol for a reported £300,000 fee plus add-ons, Newcastle bought potential. The challenge is to realise that potential.
Transfer decision
Kuol wasn’t loaned out before last month’s transfer deadline because of a knee injury.
Having spent most of his time as a United player away from the club, it was felt that he would benefit from a spell on Tyneside. The club will work with Kuol to build him up over the coming months, and he can get his match fitness back playing for the club’s Under-21 team.
Kuol isn’t in the first-team conversation at the moment, though that, of course, could change once he returns to fitness.
There will be talks about his immediate future ahead of the January window, when Kuol is likely to be loaned out for more first-team football.
Speaking in May, Howe, tellingly, said: "He's had a couple of loan spells now, but I think he needs the next one to be a successful one.
"We need him to play more game time. Hopefully, that'll happen."
Kuol – who has teased his return to fitness on social media – is working behind the scenes to make that happen.
Given Kuol’s long journey so far, it’s easy to forget that he’s just 20.
Kuol, of course, still has time on his side, though he will know he must make the most of his time on Tyneside under the watchful eyes of Howe and his staff.