{"id":252482,"date":"2022-11-23T09:50:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T10:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=252482"},"modified":"2022-11-24T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T05:00:16","slug":"kuols-ice-cold-response-to-280m-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=252482","title":{"rendered":"Kuol's ice cold response to $280m superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"

DOHA:<\/strong> Teenager Garang Kuol has never shown signs of lacking confidence \ufeff- even when facing the second most-expensive footballer of all time.<\/p>\n

The Newcastle United-bound Socceroo was subbed on during the second half of Australia's defeat\ufeff to France<\/a> – but it was a brief interaction with $280m man Kylian Mbappe that was the central talking point afterwards.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe said 'what's up bro, you good?' and I said 'yep'," Kuol said, before the pair high-fived.<\/p>\n

\ufeffLIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> FIFA World Cup in Qatar\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> French superstar's praise for key Aussie trait<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Next Socceroos move after World Cup 'lesson'\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Brothers' beautiful gesture for Australia and dad\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It was a nice moment between one of the true superstars of world football, and one who even at 18-years-old, has the world at his feet.<\/p>\n

Kuol became the youngest-ever player to represent the Socceroos at a World Cup, although with the way Australia performed in the second half he was limited to a few promising touches, but nothing more.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Going into the game I was just excited to go onto the pitch and as soon as that opportunity came, I just wanted to get on the ball," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's something that we have to look at with the coaches and see what I could have done better in terms of trying to get on the ball and stuff." \ufeff<\/p>\n

One of the biggest differences, Kuol said, was not only the technique of the French team, but their physical condition.<\/p>\n

"To see six foot four people as quick as me just shows the big difference between me and some of those players – and only hard work can get me to that level.<\/p>\n

"It felt pretty long chasing France around," he conceded.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/David_Ornstein\/status\/1595330198496579585<\/a><\/p>\n

Kuol did provide one little nod to his future employers<\/a>, Newcastle United, sporting \ufeffa pair of black and white Nike sneakers as he spoke to reporters.<\/p>\n

"I've been getting a lot of messages and a lot of support saying 'welcome to the Toon' and stuff, so yeah – I'll send them a photo of these shoes!"<\/p>\n

Australia will be back in action on Saturday night, in a must-win game against Tunisia.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOHA: Teenager Garang Kuol has never shown signs of lacking confidence \ufeff- even when facing the second most-expensive footballer of all time. The Newcastle United-bound […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=252482"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":252484,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252482\/revisions\/252484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=252482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=252482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=252482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}