In the dawn of 2019, The News sent its best two football scouts on a mission; to scour the Goulburn Valley for round ball revelations to turn the spotlight on.
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And hence, Youth Academy was born.
Two-and-a-half years have passed since we began the hunt, and with many of Youth Academy’s alumni packing up their talents and taking them to the doorstep of professional clubs across Australia and beyond, we thought we’d take a look at how the products are currently faring.
Alou Kuol
Where do we start with this kid. When Youth Academy picked up Kuol for an interview (quite literally, as he “didn’t do that driving sh*t”), he was — both figuratively and literally — thousands of miles away from the Bundesliga. A dish hand by day and destroyer of defences by night, the Goulburn Valley Suns talisman gave the most raw and hilarious account of his football journey in March 2019.
It was only natural Twitter exploded at the sight of it all. But wit and charm, as Australia soon found out, were just two weapons in the South-Sudanese striker's stacked arsenal. Kuol was soon parading on the national stage with Central Coast Mariners, dropping jaws and lifting brows with a pageant of pulsating goals and side-splitting interviews, exhibiting the kind of grain to win over the most ardent of doubters.
Just months ago he made headlines by securing a deal with German juggernaut VfB Stuttgart, where he has since been rippling the net for Die Schwaben’s under-21 outfit. It’s a fairy tale outcome, and we can’t help but feel there are many chapters left to be written in Kuol’s book.
Teng and Garang Kuol
After the blinding success of Alou, we just had to see what cloth two of his younger siblings were cut from. While not as outspoken as their gunslinging brother, the drive Teng and Garang possessed was hard to miss. Cool in response, clear in motive — the Kuols had the sauce. However, one answer they gave stood out. When asked what was next in their journeys, both had intentions of going to the highest level possible — professional football.
At the time, the Kuol boys were busting down the door to senior football at GV Suns, looking destined to break records set by Alou during his time in orange. But, true to their words, Teng and Garang were swiftly whisked off to A-League academies. Professional academies. Garang traded Shepparton for Gosford where he’d link up with Alou and Teng was signed by Melbourne Victory while still studying Year 12 at Goulburn Valley Grammar School.
It quashed our hopes of an all-Kuol Suns attacking trident, but the break in the clouds is the promise of Didi Kuol, their 11-year-old prodigy of a brother. Watch out for that edition of Youth Academy.
James Nieuwenhuizen
While Teng and Garang were smashing in bags of goals for the Suns’ youth outfits, James Niewenhuizen was guarding the net at the other end of the field. At the time of talking with Youth Academy, “The Nieuw Sensation” was in the midst of a tug-of-war between A-League factions Melbourne Victory and City. He opted for the lighter shade of blue, signing a three-year deal with the Cityzens in April where he’s since been training with the big boys.
Nieuwenhuizen is well on the way to making another of his Youth Academy premonitions come true — that being to represent Australia at senior level — having received a call up to the Joeys last year. He was already one of the nation’s most promising shot-stoppers then, and we can only imagine what he’s going to be in a few years.
Majak Mawith
A cousin of the Kuols and another gloveman of astronomical potential, Mawith set the precedent for Nieuwenhuizen long ago when he first left the Goulburn Valley for Melbourne City. Under the tutelage of former AC Milan goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac, “Magic Majak” impressed for City’s youth teams before departing AAMI Park for National Premier League outfit Port Melbourne in 2019. He’s since gone on to strap on the gloves for South Sudan, representing his home nation on nine occasions, which makes him the only Youth Academy graduate to play international football at senior level.
Huge in frame with no shortage of ability, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the 21-year-old going forward.
Gianluca Iannucci
This interview was a race against time. Iannucci’s Melbourne City youth team had just been belted by his former side — the GV Suns — and the young winger was pulled halfway through our chat for post-game sprints as punishment. Cobram’s finest ran and ran, eventually running right across town into Melbourne Victory’s ranks late last year after being denied a senior appearance for City.
He stunned on debut for Grant Brebner’s charges in the Asian Champions League, fizzing in a long-range strike against Beijing Guoan to announce himself on the Scotsman’s radar. Iannucci finally got to grace the park as an A-League footballer on May 29, replacing Callum McManaman for a short, but sweet, cameo. In our eyes, there’s plenty more to come from the “Moira Shire Messi”.
Sophia Varley
We had to squeeze one more goalkeeper on this list. Sophia, the younger of the two Varley football sensations from Finley (apologies to older brother Sam) had just been invited into the arms of Melbourne City when we sat down for a chat in March. It made her the third Youth Academy student to sport the long sleeves of City, where she has bided her time on the bench this season in the W-League. However, as the understudy to 41-year-old Melissa Barbieri, it’s only a matter of time until Varley gets the tap for a first team call up.
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