But for Emiliano Martínez’s outstretched arms, eh? A golden chance, deep in injury-time, for Australia’s wonder kid to become their golden boy, to push Argentina into an extra 30 minutes in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup.

“Liked what you saw there? You just wait ‘til 2026,” the Guardian wrote of Garang Kuol 1,104 days ago. He had, aged 18 years and 79 days, become the youngest player to appear in the knock-out stages since Pelé in 1958.

Here, on the eve of 2026, what of Kuol? Life has few guarantees, football fewer still, and with the next World Cup just half a turn away, Kuol is not where he might have expected, or at least wanted, to be.

Currently, he lives in the Czech Republic playing for storied European side Sparta Prague. Patience has been required, with just 203 first team minutes to date spread across eight appearances. But perseverance is not a new concept to Kuol, still just 21.

First, a reminder of the Kuol story. Born in Egypt, his family, having fled from South Sudan, moved to Sydney, then Shepparton in Victoria. He and brothers Alou and Teng joined Goulburn Valley Suns, with his mum, Antonietta, washing the team’s kit. His dad, Mawien, would milk cows before his regular job to ensure his boys had all they needed.

Kuol was raw, too raw for professional clubs. But Alou had already been picked up by Central Coast Mariners, and he pestered Nick Montgomery, then an assistant coach. “He kept saying, ‘I’ve got a younger brother, he’s going to be better than me,’” Montgomery recalls. A fleeting glance convinced Montgomery there was some truth to Alou’s words. “He was raw but had electric speed, a low sense of gravity, the ability to change direction – some real top attributes.”

Unlike Alou, Kuol was reserved, shy even. But he quickly impressed, embracing the physical and mental regime the Mariners put in place. Soon after Montgomery became manager he was in the first team, debuting in May 2022. By September Kuol had an international cap and signed for Newcastle United. Kuol travelled to Tyneside in January 2023, with many assuming he would soon be training regularly under Eddie Howe. The reality was quite different.

Small margins. Emi Martínez foils Garang Kuol at the 2022 World Cup. Photograph: Paul Childs/Reuters

Kuol had been removed from a place where he had been “really comfortable and flourishing” and plonked in “a totally different environment, a different culture, on the other side of the world, away from friends and family”, explains Ben Dawson, now assistant coach at Brøndby but then working with Newcastle’s youth teams.

“You have to very quickly grow up, and that can be really tough,” Dawson says. “People forget how difficult that transition can be, especially when, like Garang, you have expectation on your shoulders having done so well, so young.”

Days after his arrival, Kuol travelled further north to Edinburgh, joining Scottish Premiership team Hearts on loan. A trio of Australian teammates – Kye Rowles, Nathaniel Atkinson, and Cam Devlin – was in part why it was deemed a positive move and initially he got regular game time under Robbie Neilson. However, Kuol soon found himself sidelined, managing just eight minutes after Neilson was sacked and interim manager Steven Naismith came in. He scored his only goal of the spell, against Rangers, during that brief time.

In August 2023, Kuol joined Dutch side FC Volendam for the season. Another country, another language, another culture. Again. What else happened again? Within months, the head coach who signed Kuol, Matthias Kohler, was moved on. Kuol managed a goal and an assist in eight starts and seven substitute appearances in the Eredivisie. Volendam were relegated.

Garang Kuol celebrates with Harrison Ashby during the post-season friendly match between Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United at the MCG in 2024. Photograph: Joel Carrett/EPA

But in limited time back at Newcastle around his temporary switches, Kuol was impressing. “He is really intelligent and can take things on board really quickly,” Dawson says. “He wants to please and always came with a mindset of wanting to do better, wanting to learn.

“But he also has that little bit of edge, that little bit of individuality which generally is the difference between the ones who don’t quite achieve what they should, and the ones who go on, eventually, at whatever stage that is, to fulfil their potential.”

Dawson recalled bumping into him on Tynemouth beach at times wandering around with his headphones on, anonymous, where they could enjoy a joke. “But in and around the group, he was more serious and focused on what he needed to do. You can see his single-mindedness in some of the behaviours he displays around the group, and in the demands he put on himself and others in training.”

Having featured on Newcastle’s post-season Australia tour in 2024, Kuol was due to head on the pre-season trip to Japan but injured his knee. A grade three right quad tear then kiboshed a further loan and he remained with Newcastle’s under-21s upon his January return.

He could have gone out on loan again in January but those at Newcastle, aware of how little football he had played in 24 months, wanted to get him “robust to play”. “We had to get him enjoying it and happy,” says then manager Diarmuid O’Carroll. “We saw a spark in him and his personality came out.”

Kuol flourished, managing nine goal involvements in 11 appearances in the second half of the season.

Garang Kuol transferred from Newcastle to Sparta in August this year. Photograph: Thomas Eisenhuth/UEFA/Getty Images

“While the level wasn’t as high as he should have been playing, it allowed him to relearn how to be himself, how to play to his own strengths and to remember what he is all about,” O’Carroll says.

He believes the loan spells, while not yielding the numbers Kuol would have liked, will stand him well moving forward.

In late August, Kuol left Newcastle for Prague, following O’Carroll who had joined Brian Priske’s first-team staff by then. O’Carroll put the name forward, but Kuol earned his transfer on merit. Now could be his time.

It is easy, with hindsight’s benefit, to look back and suggest that Kuol’s big move came too early, that perhaps another season with the Mariners might have been more beneficial.

“We’ll never know,” Montgomery says. “You can only say that you know a few years down the line. The clubs wanting to sign him knew they were not signing ‘end product’, they were signing ‘potential’, and his potential was massive.

“I know that one day he will reach that potential, and no doubt the journey he’s been on will help him reach that level consistently at a top level in Europe.” O’Carroll and Dawson agree.

World Cup bolter? Never say never.