'I'm lost for words': Mum's journey inspires Sudanese refugee towards AFL dreamSean Sowerby
7News
21 November 2019Big by name, big by nature.
Meet Bigoa Nyuon – but you can call him Biggie.
"I've actually had the nickname for a while now," Nyuon laughs.
"I think I got it in kindergarten and now it's stuck. It's like that’s my real name now."
The St Kilda Next Generation Academy footballer is a 196cm tall, super-quick utility.
Setting aside his football prospects, Biggie's life story is even more interesting than his name.
He was born in Nairobi, Kenya into a South Sudanese family displaced and divided by the war.
Fleeing the civil war, their family was split between refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya.
"You look back every now and then and just think 'how did mum do this?'" Nyuon tells 7NEWS.
"I'm in shock just thinking about what she had to do to get all eight of us here to Australia – I'm lost for words."
A proud Australian, Biggie can't remember life as a three-year-old living in a refugee camp but his older sister Nyadol, 18 years old as the family reached Australia, will never forget their journey.
Like many Sudanese families rocked by the war, tragedy struck when their father was killed in the conflict.
"Our fathers were based in South Sudan fighting the war and it was mum who took us out (of the country)," Nyadol said.
Arriving in Melbourne with no money and very few belongings Biggie's mother Mary had to work three jobs, leaving her older children to raise the younger ones – including Biggie.
Having grown up without a dad, he is quick to recognise Nyadol's significant contribution to his adolescence.
As far as role models go, you won't find a better influence than Biggie's sister, who has studied hard to become a top lawyer and human rights advocate.
"Nyadol almost played that father figure which I didn’t have growing up," Biggie says.
"She's been a massive part of my development as a footballer and as a young man."
To assimilate into Australian culture, Biggie joined an Auskick program.
The first time he touched a football was on the MCG playing in a half-time Auskick game during a Collingwood v North Melbourne match.
Ever since, while making his way from the Rowville footy club to the Dandenong Stingrays and St Kilda's academy, he's dreamed of becoming an AFL footballer.
"Just want to make my family proud and play AFL and be on TV," Biggie explains.
"I don't know if words can describe how anybody would feel after being drafted."
He looks up to Sudanese footballers Majak Daw and Aliir Aliir, whose paths to Australia and the AFL are familiar to Biggie, and he's determined to follow in their footsteps and become a Sudanese-Australian role model.
Biggie's older brother Gach Nyuon spent a year on Essendon's playing list, but they're two very different footballers.
"I'm bigger, stronger and faster," the younger sibling laughs.
Managed by the brother of Melbourne Demons star Christian Petracca, Julian of Hemisphere Management, Biggie is in good hands and expects to be drafted in the second round.
Biggie is almost two metres tall but he smashed the 20m sprint at the Victorian state draft combine, clocking the fastest time of all of this year's potential draftees.
An incredible athlete, he's proved very good at reading the play and projects as a dangerous, tall and fast intercepting defender who can pinch-hit in the ruck – not unlike his AFL inspiration Aliir.
Biggie and the Nyuon clan all have their fingers crossed his football dream will come true at the AFL draft on Wednesday night or Thursday.
His sister says the family of eight won't be able to control themselves if an AFL club recruiter reads out Biggie's name.
"We'll be dancing and screaming and shouting so it's going to be massive but whatever happens we'll always be here for him," Nyadol said.
Watch story here: https://7news.com.au/sport/afl/mums-hardship-inspires-sudanese-refugee-biggy-nyuon-towards-afl-dream-c-566610
