Thomas Jok Deng (born 20 March 1997) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Japanese club Albirex Niigata. Born a South Sudanese refugee in Kenya, he has represented the

Australia national team Sport is an important part of Australia that dates back to the early colonial period. Australian rules football, rugby league, rugby union, association football, cricket and tennis are among the earliest organised sports in Australia. Sport ha ...

Personal life

Thomas Jok Deng was born on 20 March 1997 into a family of South Sudanese refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. He, along with his family, were fleeing from the conflict in South Sudan and eventually resettled in Adelaide, South Australia, in 2003, when Deng was six years old. Deng has four older siblings, as well as a half-brother who lives in Uganda. His older brother, Peter Deng, has represented South Sudan at senior level.

Club career

Deng's first club, along with his good friend and fellow refugee and Socceroo Awer Mabil, was the

Adelaide Blue Eagles The Azzurri Sports Club is home to the Adelaide Blue Eagles (ABE), a soccer club based at the Marden Sports Complex, South Australia. It has formerly been known as Napoli Sports Club, Eastern Districts, Eastern Districts Napoli Sports Club, and ...

. After the family had moved to Melbourne in 2011, Deng made his senior football debut as a 16 year old in 2013 at Western Eagles F.C. under then-manager Budala Barešić-Nikić in the Victorian State League Division 3. The following season, the youngster moved to nearby Green Gully SC, where manager Bob Stojcevski recruited Deng to play for the club's u20 side. He was eventually promoted to the senior team and made 13 first team appearances in the NPL Victoria in 2014. Following his impressive performances at Gully, Melbourne Victory National Youth League coach Darren Davies rewarded Deng with a youth contract. Deng debuted for the senior team for Melbourne Victory against Balmain Tigers in the

2015 FFA Cup The 2015 FFA Cup was the second season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. 32 teams began competition in the competition proper (from the round of 32), including all 10 A-League teams, the reigning Nat ...

. He made his

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

debut on 9 October 2015 against Adelaide United, as a substitute replacing Fahid Ben Khalfallah after a

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was shown to

Leigh Broxham Leigh Michael Broxham (born 13 January 1988) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Melbourne Victory in the A-League. As of May 2021, he currently holds the record for most appearances for Melbourne Victory, p ...

. Thomas made his starting debut in the

for Melbourne Victory on 17 October 2015 in round 2 against town rivals, Melbourne City, where he was selected as Man of the Match by supporters and social media. In June 2016, Deng moved to

Jong PSV Jong PSV is a Dutch football team based in Eindhoven. It is the reserve team of PSV Eindhoven and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2013–14 season. History Until 2013, Jong PSV played in the Beloften Eredivisie, a league exclusively for ...

on a one-year loan deal. After making five appearances, he returned to Melbourne Victory at the end of the season. In January 2020, Deng left Melbourne Victory to join Japanese club Urawa Red Diamonds following his performance at the

2020 AFC U-23 Championship The 2020 AFC U-23 Championship was the fourth edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-23 national teams of Asia. ...

International career

He was part of the main squad of the

Olyroos The Australia national under-23 soccer team represents Australia in international under-23 soccer and at the Olympic Games. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia (FA), which is currently a member ...

at the

2016 AFC U-23 Championship The 2016 AFC U-23 Championship (also known as the 2016 AFC U-23 Asian Cup) was the second edition of the AFC U-23 Championship, the biennial international age-restricted football championship organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) fo ...

and put on an extremely impressive display throughout the tournament, garnering high praise from respected Australian pundits: Geoff Fullgrabe, Alan Vucenik, and Craig Foster. Due to being born in Kenya and having South Sudanese heritage, he is eligible to play for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Kenya and South Sudan. In October 2018, Deng was named in the Socceroos squad for their training camp in the UAE and their friendly against Kuwait. In the friendly he made his debut, together with fellow South Sudanese refugee and boyhood friend Awer Mabil. On 22 July 2021, Deng captained Australia in a historic 2–0 win over Argentina in the first group game of the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

in Tokyo, also winning the Player of the Match award.

Honours

Melbourne Victory * A-League Championship: 2017–18 * FFA Cup:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Albirex Niigata *

J2 League The or simply J2 is the second division of the and the second level of the Japanese association football league system. The top tier is represented by the J1 League. It (along with the rest of the J.League) is currently sponsored by Meiji Yas ...

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References

External links