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

Luol Deng left his mark in the NBA, where he spent his entire professional career defending the colors of the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves between 2004 and 2019. He is also known for having played for the Great Britain national team, and now he is in the public eye because of his fairytale story with the South Sudan basketball team.

From 2021, he is the president of the federation of this country, which became independent in 2011. He is also the national team coach. And what did he do? He took the country where he was born (the city of Wau in today's South Sudan) to the World Cup - in their first attempt! A Hollywood script-worthy story!

"This is what we wanted to achieve and it means everything in the world that we succeeded. There's still a lot of work ahead of us, but any time you make history, it can't be erased. From the guys who played with us in the fifth zone, to these guys here, everyone will be remembered forever," said Deng.

He really took the team on an incredible journey and created a proper miracle. With his brother Ajou as an assistant, he won a place at the planetary tournament with a fairly anonymous selection. 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. They were the second one to get a visa for Indonesia, Japan and the Philippines after the Ivory Coast and stood in the way of the Senegalese who were the favorites to win the World Cup tickets for the third time in a row.

All this without a real leader in the roster, without big names, although there are famous players who originate from this African country, such as Duop Reath, Ton Maker from the NBA (currently in the G League) and Mangok Mathiang - all three have already represented Australia at international level.

Deng Acuoth from the Adelaide 36ers, Kuany Kuany, and Nuni Omot, a basketball player playing for the Puerto Rican Leones de Ponce, who played a great match against Senegal and with eight points in the last quarter, were the most responcible for South Sudan's express qualification to the Mundobasket.

Deng's men have achieved tremendous success for this African country, which has been through a lot in the previous decade. In 2011, South Sudan practically became the newest country on the planet, after decades of civil wars in which, according to estimates, more than 2,000,000 people died.

"We come from a country that's been through a lot. Some of these boys have been through some things that you can't control, and as time goes on there's an increasing number of people who don't get a chance to go home, let alone wear a jersey and represent their country. For them, this is more than a game, they experience this opportunity very emotionally," said Deng back in 2020, when the rise of his basketball project began.

After the great success of the Shining Stars, as South Sudan's basketball team is popularly called, the president and coach was outraged at a press conference that his boys did not have the opportunity to celebrate history with their countrymen. Namely, the organizers of the final stage of the qualification in Alexandria did not allow their fans to enter.

"I have a message for FIBA and the Egyptian federation. I hope that everything that happened this week was written down, how they treated this team, how everything was set up. We have to be disappointed, because before this match we had a team that is on the threshold of history, which is writing an incredible story not only for FIBA, but also for African basketball, had numerous fans who came from different parts of the world to support us. No one has more fans at this time. No one told us that they are not allowed to attend the game, but the opposite. We got to the arena, saw the fans standing in front and they were standing during the entire game. FIBA should be ashamed, as well as the Egyptian federation. Whatever is happening, it must stop immediately. Basketball does not need this. We have a fantastic story, and they took away our right to celebrate with the fans. We have to make it up to them. We made history, and they weren't allowed to be there. FIBA has to deal with that," Deng interrupted his player Nuni Omot in order to say what was on his mind.

Anyway, an incredible, inspiring story of a South Sudanese basketball. They definitely drew attention to themselves and took an important step towards more serious professional careers. More importantly, they made the entire nation proud. We will see them in the next summer side by side with the best in the world, where, without a doubt, they will leave their hearts on the floor as they did during the entire qualification cycle.