Luol Deng - Arsenal’s Biggest Fan
Amongst the 60,023 enjoying the very first competitive match at Emirates Stadium on Saturday was the giant figure of Luol Deng.
The 6’ 9”, 21 year-old was as excited as every other Gunners fan to witness Emirates Stadium’s debut fixture, though it must have felt strange to be one of the thousands cheering on his heroes, when he’s far more used to being the centre of many thousands of fans’ attention himself.
Luol has just finished a very successful second season playing basketball in the NBA with Chicago Bulls, following a brilliant first year, when he was voted one of the five best rookies in the league. He made great strides in his second term, averaging 14.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.9 assists which was third, second and fourth respectively on the Bulls squad, proving that he’s a great all-rounder, and the Chicago Bulls are now threatening to become a force in the NBA once again, following some difficult years in the shadow of the great team led by the one and only Michael Jordan in the 1980s and 1990s.
So why is this talented young basketball star an Arsenal fan? Well, he was born in the marvellously named Wow, in Sudan, East Africa and is a member of the famous Dinka tribe who inhabit the south of that country. As a six year-old Luol fled the civil war in Sudan with his family to Egypt and four years later the Dengs settled in South Norwood, London and it was whilst growing up in south London that he developed his passion for Arsenal Football Club: “I’ve always been a huge Arsenal fan,” confirms Luol. “My first heroes were people like Tony Adams and Ian Wright.
“I never got the chance to watch Arsenal at Highbury when I was growing up in London but always watched them on TV and I was mad about them and still am,” says Luol, who admits he’s always Thierry Henry when playing on FIFA 2005. “I still manage to watch the team in the States, through channels like Fox Sports. I try to watch every Arsenal game I can that’s on TV. I follow the Premier League really closely. When my brothers come over we watch the games together, but a lot of the time I watch games on my own — there still aren’t many people in the States who are really interested in ‘soccer’.”
Luol spent six years in London before accepting a scholarship at Blair Academy in New Jersey, before going to Duke University from where he was ‘drafted’ by the Chicago Bulls in 2004. Luol — who still calls London ‘home’ — is obviously making a huge success of his career in the NBA, but admits he had dreams of starring in another sport as a youngster:
“I always wanted to play in the Premier League for Arsenal when I was young,” says Luol, who as you can see from our pictures, has good ball control for such a big man. “I just used to fool around with basketball to be honest, but then I realised that with my height and size that perhaps basketball was going to be a better bet.
“I played football at my secondary school and for a few clubs. I changed position a lot, because I was always big managers used to try and play me in defence, but that wasn’t really my best position because I wasn’t a good defender,” he smiles. “When I moved into midfield I was better. Central midfield, kind of like Patrick Vieira. And I liked to play up front when I got the chance, basically because I really wanted to celebrate scoring goals! I even played in a team with one of Ian Wright’s sons in south London for a while, I think it was Bradley [Wright-Phillips who now plays for Southampton].”
Luol visited the Arsenal Training Centre last season, where he chatted to many of the players including Thierry Henry, who is a huge basketball fan and a good friend of two of the NBA’s biggest stars, Tony Parker and Steve Nash. Philippe Senderos is also very keen on the game, not surprising really when you consider Philippe’s brother Julien plays the game professionally. Philippe even invited Luol to Emirates Stadium a few days before the Villa game to give him a tour of the new facilities: “That was really nice of him,” says Luol. “Philippe’s a really good guy who knows a lot about basketball. It was quite weird watching him and a few of the other players I got to meet last year playing in the World Cup. I really enjoyed watching the World Cup, but as an England fan was disappointed with the way they played. I also look out for the African teams because of my roots too. Even in the States the World Cup is pretty big, because there are so many people who have family from South America, European and African countries for example, so lots of people can follow a team.”
And what did Luol think about his first experience watching Arsenal live on Saturday?
“It was really exciting for me,” he smiles. “I never got to go to Highbury, so this was my first time and for it to be a historic match like that was great.
“I thought the atmosphere in the stadium was really good, particularly in the second-half when we were chasing the game. The roof seems to hold the noise in.
“It looked like we weren’t going to do it even though we had so much of the play,” he continues. “After Villa got their goal they had a pretty good game plan to be honest but it was just brilliant for Gilberto to get that equaliser. It was so good for all the fans and the Club that we didn’t lose that first game. A win would have been better — maybe our next game there — but it’s a long season and I still think we can do well.
“I love to watch this team, they play such good football. And they are such a young team. I thought the kid Theo Walcott did really well when he came on. He looked good.”
Luol headed back to the States the day after the Aston Villa game, but “would love to get back to Emirates soon”. In the meantime, he turns his attentions to making his third season with the Bulls as successful as the previous two:
“We had a really good season last year,” says Luol. “We reached the play-offs again and only lost to the team [Miami Heat] who went on to be NBA champions. Now we’ve signed Ben Wallace who is one of the best players in the NBA defensively, he will really help our team.
“I just have to keep learning and working hard now.”
