Currently at the World Cup with the Socceroos, King has not played a minute for the side in their opening two games, mainly due to the good form of current left-back Aziz Behich.

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Watching in Qatar, the Shellharbour family are cheering on Joel as he looks to make history with the Socceroos when they take on Denmark on Thursday morning (AEDT).

King's father Bruce told the Mercury that his son had been in this situation before, most notably for Sydney FC when he was put into the side for an injured Michael Zullo and also in the Olympic squad.

"I understand he's not playing [at the moment] but he is there ready to go," he said.

"And this has happened a bit in his career. Things out of the blue have happened and away he went. It's how a lot of opportunities have popped up. When he first played for the Socceroos, Behich was unable to fly over [from his former club] in Turkey and away he went.

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"But you've got to be ready to go and have the ability," Bruce said.

Behind every professional footballer are the parents - the ones who drive countless hours to training and games and who fork over multitudes of dollars - all to make their children's dreams come true.

But it's a sacrifice that is necessary and one that is often done with no hassle or complaints.

For Donna and Bruce King - the mother and father of Joel and also current Newcastle Jets defender Taren in the A-League Women - it was no different.

Donna said that Joel's meteoric rise to the national team at just 22 was simply amazing and that she had fond memories of many hours in the car driving to football training and games.

"I'm still pinching myself. The whole family including Joel's older brother have dedicated our lives to this."

Bruce added that the work put in for Joel by local football coach and Illawarra football legend Mineo Bonetig - the father of Alex and Liam who play for WSW - was one of the main reasons why Joel fell in love with the game so early on his his life.

"From under six's, Mineo made the game important. And it was an eye-opener for me coming from a rugby league background. I've got to give him a tip for that. We would have been proud if he just made the Shellharbour under 10 A's," he said.

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