In the space of three months, Sabit Ngor has gone from playing in the NPL to scoring in the AFC Champions League Elite. He speaks to aleagues.com.au about his journey to Central Coast Mariners.
It is funny how quickly things can change in life, let alone football. Rewind a couple of months and Sabit Ngor was almost certain about one thing.
He thought his A-Leagues dream was gone. Then, Central Coast Mariners came calling.
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“I gave up, honestly,” Ngor, who had previously been on the books of Western United, told aleagues.com.au. “(In the) second half of the season when I went to Heidelberg, I didn’t think it would happen. I just thought go in and do the best you can.
“Then it was a total surprise me.
“I know myself that I gave up, I thought I was too old to get into the A-League… well, I’m here.”
Ngor is well and truly here in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
The 23-year-old scored his first A-Leagues goal in the Round 2 draw away to Adelaide United, before coming off the bench to spark Central Coast’s incredible comeback against Chinese powerhouse Shanghai Shenhua in the AFC Champions League elite within three minutes of his introduction.
“I’m on a high. It’s unbelievable. It’s gone from obviously NPL 10 games in and then straight into the A-Leagues,” he reflected ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Wellington Phoenix.
It is all thanks to a stellar display against the Mariners in the 2024 Australia Cup.
Ngor impressed as NPLM VIC giants Heidelberg United stunned Central Coast 3-1 in the Round of 32 on August 7.
“It was on that performance,” Ngor said of how the trial came about. “The coach reached out.
“I know the coach was interested in me and I heard it. I heard he said ‘if I can, I’d sign this kid tomorrow’.
“Then I was excited – they’re looking at me. It came from the coach and I was really pleased. He wants me to play for them. I was really grateful.”
In fact, Ngor had another trial lined up after his five-day stint with the Mariners.
F3 rivals Newcastle Jets were meant to be his next stop but he only had one thing on his mind after tallying two assists for the Mariners in a pre-season clash with Sydney FC.
“I was supposed to go trial there (at the Jets) after the Mariners but Jacko, he offered me a contract and I said yes,” Ngor said.
“I know what they’ve done in the league. It’s something I wanted to be a part of and the opportunities I’d get with the club.”
It has been a long road for Ngor to get to this point on the Central Coast.
The 23-year-old winger spent more than a decade in a refugee camp in Kenya before relocating to Australia at the age of 12.
He was born in the Kakuma camp to South Sudanese parents and spent his formative years there, like Subway Socceroos attacker Awer Mabil.
“Growing up in Kakuma, football is the only thing you play there,” Ngor recalled.
“You get a soccer ball, start kicking it around for a couple of hours. I always aspired to be a professional footballer, ever since I was there.”
As a kid, there was plenty of football. It was there where Ngor also discovered eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and all-time great Lionel Messi.
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“I even had his shirt before I even knew the guy,” Ngor smiled as he spoke about who he modelled his game around. “I had his shirt in Africa. They called me by his name because it kind of goes like that – when you have a shirt with the player name, they will call you that person.
“I didn’t know who he was. I searched him on YouTube and I’m like this guy is incredible. I just started watching.
“He is left footed, I’m left footed. Things just go well.”
It wasn’t just football within the Kenyan refugee camp. There was also farming.
“It was when I was about six or seven years of age, I started farming. You have to travel about 10 minutes to get the water – up and back in little cans. I think that’s where I kind of got my physique from. That was my gym time – farming.
“It was safe though because the group I was in was protected by the government. There was like a big fence around it. It was good. I was a kid then, I didn’t realise such dangers. There was probably more going on but I just didn’t focus on them.”
Then at the start of his teenage years, Ngor swapped Africa for Down Under.
However, it was not until the age of 15 that he started playing football in Australia via Werribee City in Victoria.
Due to the cost of fees, Ngor left Werribee briefly for another local club – Hoppers Crossing – before returning to the Bees.
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“They (Werribee) helped me a lot with that. (I) came in and did some chores and paid (fees) little bit by little bit, as much as I could manage,” he recalled.
After Werribee, Ngor found himself at NPL side Port Melbourne before a successful trial with Isuzu UTE A-League outfit Western United.
He made his professional bow with Western in the 2021 Australia Cup but never featured in the A-Leagues as he scored 11 goals in his final season with the club’s youth team in 2023.
“I thought I had (done) enough to get a chance with the first team and then that didn’t happen. We had a meeting and they didn’t have a bad thing to say – maybe it was because I was older. So they didn’t sign me,” Ngor explained.
“One of the staff members at Western was pleased with how I was going and my attitude. They knew Newcastle Jets, so I went up to the Jets. They wanted to sign me but they didn’t have the money when they didn’t have an owner.
“I was just there training, doing well and scoring. My mentor saw nothing was happening so he said come back to the NPL. So I signed with Heidelberg and then a couple of months in during pre-season, a chance to go to Finland came up. I took it.”
That chance was with Veikkausligga club Tampereen Ilves in 2023. Following a successful trial, he went on to make 29 appearances for the Finnish outfit, scoring five goals, supplying three assists and winning the League Cup – but it was a difficult experience for Ngor.
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“It was cold. I felt isolated too,” he said. “It was my first time obviously out of the country. I had to learn the culture and how things worked. I struggled with it but managed to score some goals and (provide) assists.
“I wasn’t happy there so I told them I want to come back to the NPL. When I came back, there was no interest from the A-League.
“I wanted to go back overseas in Norway. There was a team interested me – a first team. They wanted to sell a striker so they could bring in more money and sign new players. That didn’t happen.
“So I missed the window to go over there and the NPL. So (for) 6-7 months I wasn’t playing football, just training with the boys and kicking the ball with the boys.
“Second half of the season, (head coach) John (Anastasiadis) from Heidelberg called and brought him in.”
Now, as Ngor says; “I’m here.”
“It hasn’t sunk in. It’s just another day. I haven’t even got time to realise where I’m at. I’m just going through it. It’s so unreal.”
