Sebastopol Vikings goal-scoring machine Kuanyjal Tuany will play his 100th game for the club on Saturday.
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Originally from Africa, Tuany and his family came to Australia in 2005, living in Colac before moving to Ballarat.
Although the temperature wasn’t exactly to the families liking, so they decided to move to Perth.
Tuany eventually found his way back to Ballarat in 2014 where he joined the Vikings. He played a mixture of seniors and reserves in Football Federation Victoria state league four, then spent 2015 and 2016 in the Ballarat District Soccer Association division one competition with Sebastopol.
The dynamic player quickly made his presence felt at local level, kicking a goal a game in 2015 before taking out the league’s leading goal-scorer in 2016, kicking 33 goals – 16 more than the next best – including a hat-trick in the Vikings grand final success.
Tuany has played a telling role in the Vikings promotion from state league four to three, kicking 20 goals last season.
Tuany said he did not realise he was this close to the milestone, and joked that he was made aware of it after reading it on the club’s Facebook page.
“That’s what I saw too,” Tuany joked.
“I knew it was close, but I didn’t know – I wasn’t really paying much attention.”
Tuany said it was a proud moment to bring up the achievement, but said a win against Sunbury United this week was his main focus.
“It’s a good milestone. It will be good, especially if we win.
“The most important thing is to get the three points first.
“It’ll be great to get the win on the day and if I get lucky and score a goal I’ll be really happy, but most importantly get the win.”
It’ll be great to get the win on the day and if I get lucky and score a goal I’ll be really happy, but most importantly get the win.
- Milestone man Kuanyjal Tuany
Tuany echoed what many of his teammates have told The Courier’s soccer page throughout the season – Vikings is a great place to play and offers a great balance between professionalism and social.
“It is a great place to be.
“The team has done really well so far, so we just want to keep it going.
“When you’ve got that welcoming environment like Sebas has, it makes life really easy...especially when we’re playing away, everyone’s looking forward to being in each other’s company.”
Vikings sit in fifth position on the state league three north-west ladder and will host sixth-placed Sunbury at St Georges Reserve this Saturday.
