Central Coast Mariners duo Garang Kuol and Jason Cummings have both been selected in the Australian Men’s National Team squad set to face off against the All-Whites later this month. It is the first time that either of the pair have been called in to represent the Socceroos.
The national team call up comes just a day before Kuol’s 18th birthday, with the selection marking another accomplishment in his short career.
The attacker only made his professional debut for the Mariners in the FFA Cup on December 21st last year, with the youngster going on to play nine A-League games, scoring four times.
He would cap off the 2021/22 season with an appearance in the A-League All-Star match against Barcelona.
The youngster is incredibly excited to be joining the Socceroos set-up and is thankful for the role that the Central Coast Mariners have played in getting him there.
“It is a very proud moment that I can hopefully push forward from. Hopefully this is just the beginning of something big, to build off this and use this as a steppingstone for the future,” Kuol said.
“[The Mariners] gave me an environment to get better every day. Especially coming from Shepparton where I was only training twice a week to now training every day basically and playing with some of the best players.”
He will be joined in the squad by Cummings, who has seen his good form for the Mariners rewarded with his first Socceroos call-up.
Since joining the Central Coast Mariners in January this year Cummings has proven to be one of the best strikers in the league, scoring 11 goals in his 22 appearances for the club.
“I’m absolutely buzzing, over the moon. It was a goal of mine for a long time now, and especially when I came to Australia in January it was something that I wanted to try and accomplish,” Cummings said.
“When I got the call yesterday, I was buzzing. It is just the beginning as well, hopefully I can get many more.”
The striker puts much of his recent form down to his move to the Mariners, and the coaching of Nick Montgomery.
“It has been huge. To come here, I fell back in love with the game. To have a manager that believes in me, who has played me every week,” he said.
“I am scoring goals and just thriving. It is good to be rewarded with this call up.”
Kuol, Cummings and the rest of the Socceroos squad will face Storm Roux and the All-Whites on the 22nd and 25th of September.
