President Luol Deng and his South Sudan miracle: From refugee camps to basketball sensation of the year

Few things in life can be as inspiring as sports. Rise from the most difficult situation and reach the stars. Hardly anywhere on the planet is life more difficult than in South Sudan, officially the youngest country in the world that gained independence in 2011 after decades of civil war. In such conditions, Luol Deng was born, probably the most famous citizen of South Sudan, which delighted the basketball world by qualifying for the World Cup. It was Luol with his brother Ajou who did something worthy to be written down in history forever.

For fans of NBA basketball, the name Luol Deng is familiar. The guy had a successful NBA career that lasted 15 years. He spent most of his time with the Chicago Bulls. He is remembered for wearing the Great Britain jersey, but is now a hero for his native South Sudan.

Born in Wau, the capital of the mentioned country, he could not stay there for too long. His father decided to move the whole family to Egypt when Luol was only three years old, he and eight other siblings moved to a small apartment in Egypt. There he falls in love with basketball, all because of another NBA legend born in Sudan - Manute Bol.

"Everyone in my country knew who Manute was. He played basketball, and he became my mentor. From him I learned that you should never forget your roots and that you should always help. Fame and money did not change him. I fell in love with basketball because him because he was coming to Egypt during the summer to help children from South Sudan who had escaped," Deng said at the time.

South Sudan - a country only 12 years old - is headed to the World Cup!

Because of basketball, he managed to go to Great Britain, and then to the United States of America, where he was one of the most talented high school players along with LeBron James.

However, he is now in the spotlight for everything he does in his native country, one of the world's poorest. Official information says that more than 85% of the population lives below the poverty line. The same percentage is in rural areas without basic sanitation and drinking water. In addition, most people earn less than two dollars a day.

In such circumstances, Luol decided to change something, all through sports. Since 2011, he started shyly asking how he could help, and sports camps started working in 2014, all to gather children and keep them off the streets, and in addition to sports, direct them to schools, where only 19% go children in South Sudan. Only 1.9% of the population has completed primary school.

And he made a big decision in 2019 when he became the president of the Basketball Association. Then begins the fairy-tale story of a nation with no stars in the team, most of the guys play in Australia, and almost none of them have been in South Sudan for more than 10 years due to war.

"Sports bring people together. We all come together for the same goal, it's like a family. We all do our best together, that's the beauty of sports," added Deng.

The population, whose life expectancy does not exceed 60 years, did not even have proper basketball courts until 2015, when Deng set out to achieve the first set goals.

Today, South Sudan, with Luol Deng as president and national team coach, is a participant in the World Cup.

With the victory over Senegal 83:75, the ninth in the qualification cycle, South Sudan officially made history as the first African national team to secure participation in the summit of the world's best selections on their first try. They were the second to get a visa for Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines after the Ivory Coast. They stood in the way of the Senegalese who were the favorites to win the World Cup participation for the third time in a row.

Now with Luol Deng they will try to write new pages of history at Mundobasket from August 25 to September 10.