Football young gun reveals secret to success

It was always going to be football that consumed Joel King, but for a long time the young Sydney FC leftback didn’t realise quite the heights he was heading for.

But on the eve of the A-League grand final, the star maintains it has been “hard work” that has gotten him to where he is today.

Still only 20, King was inspired as a little boy by watching his elder siblings play – to the extent he is on the verge of his second grand final, and could be a dark horse for Australia’s Olympic team.

With an older sister who plays for Newcastle Jets, there’s serious football stock in the family – all of the King siblings inspired by becoming Sydney FC fans from the beginning and meeting some of the club’s players as starstruck children.

An autograph from Sydney centreback Jacob Timpano at the time had the message, “See you in the A-League one day,” and it proved to be remarkably farsighted.

“My dad played rugby, but because my older brother Scott has Klinefelter syndrome (a genetic condition), my parents felt it would be safer for him to play football – so I grew up as a little kid watching my brother and sister playing football,” Joel said.

“As I got older I’d spend hours practising at home (in Shell Cove, near Wollongong), smashing a ball against the back fence. It was metal and the noise drove our neighbours mad, they wouldn’t give the ball back if I kicked it over the fence.

“But it was only when I was playing at NSWIS aged 16, and got a place at the AIS, that I thought maybe this could be a career for me.”

Taren, Joel and Scott King with Sydney players Jacob Timpano and Brendan SantalabSource:Supplied

By that point Taren had already got there first, making her debut for Canberra United in the W-League in 2017 – and making the rest of their family very proud.

“Dad will probably claim it’s genetic (talent), but really it’s the hard work that they instilled in us as parents,” said Joel.

“They always said to us, you can’t fault hard work. Dad would take us to the park for hours to practise, and I guess it’s paid off.

“It helps now having a sister playing at the same level, we live together and she knows to steer clear of me if we’ve lost – and vice versa.

“My brother loves it though, if I’m playing he has the Sydney jersey on and if it’s Taren playing he gets the Jets one out.”

There’ll be no split loyalties in the grand final, though, with Melbourne City standing in the path of Sydney’s hopes of winning an unprecedented third straight title.

It has been a chaotic grand final week for the Sky Blues, with half the team forced into hotels late on Tuesday night to avoid being caught in so-called Covid red zones and thus unable to travel to Victoria.

A day later the whole squad flew to Melbourne at short notice, but King was adamant the disruption would not play out on the pitch.

“It won’t really bother us, we play away games every second week so the routines we go through are pretty standard,” he said.

“Now that we’re safely in Melbourne we can prepare as normal, and we have the experience of grand finals to know exactly what we need to do.”

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