{"id":743910,"date":"2026-06-18T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743910\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T06:27:09","slug":"mo-toures-parents-on-the-struggles-that-paved-way-for-a-socceroos-career-it-was-life-or-death-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/743910\/","title":{"rendered":"Mo Tour\u00e9\u2019s parents on the struggles that paved way for a Socceroos career: \u2018It was life or death\u2019 | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stories of these Socceroos can be traced back through grassy fields around Australia<\/a> in the 1990s and 2000s, when 20 or so wide-eyed young footballers were just coming to terms with the ball. There were games, goalposts, quartered oranges. Old teammates, new boots. Season-to-season, year-on-year.<\/p>\n

Their progression to the international arena is a secret recipe countries have spent millions of dollars trying to perfect, with flashy academies and talent identification programs. Consultants within elite football call this the talent pathway.<\/p>\n

But go back further, to where one Socceroo\u2019s story begins, and there is no path.<\/p>\n

Amara and Mawa Tour\u00e9 \u2013 parents of striker Mo Tour\u00e9 \u2013 were children when war broke out in Liberia in 1989. \u201cEverything went helter-skelter, and every Liberian started running for their life,\u201d Amara says.<\/p>\n

Amara, his little brother and adult sister walked for 18 days to make it to the border with Guinea. They survived on ripening wild fruit and vegetables, with a warning to avoid anyone they came across. \u201cIt was a scary time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now when I reflect on it, it would have been even scarier if I knew the ramifications of what we were going through. Because it was life or death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mawa (left) and Amara Tour\u00e9. Photograph: Australia for UNHCR<\/p>\n

Amara spent almost 14 years in Guinea. Initially he was supported by UNHCR and given essentials like food, a tent and a mosquito net. He moved from the refugee camp to marginally improved conditions in the broader community, but his life remained constrained.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball was everything for me,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I walked on to the park, I felt that is where I got to demand my respect, and that\u2019s where I felt good. So my sanctuary was only football.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amara and Mawa met at age 20. Their first son Al Hassan was born, followed by Mohamed \u2013 now better known as \u201cMo\u201d \u2013 before they travelled to Australia on humanitarian visas. Both brothers have become Socceroos.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery parent wants one\u2019s child to go into something that they like and they excel at,\u201d Amara says. \u201cSo when I would see them playing football and they\u2019re entertaining people, I can\u2019t afford not to be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toure celebrates with fans after the second goal went in against Turkey. Photograph: Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mo is wearing No 9 at this World Cup<\/a>. \u201cWearing the Socceroo jersey represents freedom,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the land that gave us opportunity, that lent us a helping hand, so every time I just play, I play with freedom and I always remember how things could have been if we weren\u2019t in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four refugees within the Socceroos squad \u2013 Tour\u00e9, Nestory Irankunda, Awer Mabil and Milos Degenek \u2013 have found themselves in the spotlight during the internationally celebrated refugee week, culminating in the United Nations\u2019 world refugee day on Sunday.<\/p>\n

They have contributed to the Socceroos\u2019 video promoting cultural diversity and Tour\u00e9\u2019s family are working with local charity Australia for UNHCR to support displaced people. That involves the retelling of the family\u2019s trauma.<\/p>\n

The Socceroos striker says it\u2019s something they do willingly. \u201cIt\u2019s just something that happens and for us. It\u2019s, I wouldn\u2019t say normal, but it\u2019s common. We see a lot of our family members or a lot of the African community have similar stories and everybody came and migrated to Australia in a different way. So we\u2019re just happy to share our story and then people find out how we did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tour\u00e9 and Nestory Irankunda are among four refugees in the Australia squad. Photograph: Stu Forster\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Mo was seven months old when he first arrived in Australia, in 2004. The family settled in Adelaide\u2019s inner-west suburb of Croydon. \u201cMy early life in Australia, I thought it was good because I didn\u2019t know better,\u201d he says. \u201cI can now see that there were times in my childhood where my parents struggled, but I was too young to really understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sometimes others in the neighbourhood would be given possessions or treats while the Tour\u00e9 boys were left wanting. \u201cI just thought it was them [his parents] punishing me or them not wanting to do it,\u201d Mo says. \u201cBut now that I\u2019m older, I understand the struggles, and the real reason why we didn\u2019t have all these things was because simply it was hard. Life was hard at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrying around three young footballers \u2013 Al Hassan now plays for Sydney FC and younger brother Musa is at Mo\u2019s former club Randers in Denmark \u2013 was not easy, either. Some years at least one of the boys would play every day of the week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be raining, and my parents would be there, freezing, waiting for us to finish training,\u201d Mo says. \u201cWhen we were very young, they would take our boots off before we got in the car as they didn\u2019t want mud in there. Oh man, the next day they [would have to] clean the car [anyway].\u201d<\/p>\n

Australia is now grateful for their sacrifice. Al Hassan debuted for the Socceroos last year, when he took the field alongside his brother in a friendly against Venezuela. Though only Mo won selection for this World Cup, the family were in Vancouver to see him play a key role against Turkey. \u201cThis is our country now,\u201d Amara says. \u201cWearing that green and gold and going there and fighting for that country, to me, is the greatest thing I can ever see them do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stories of these Socceroos can be traced back through grassy fields around Australia in the 1990s and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-743910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}