The Richest Man In Rugby League

Kalin Pongo is the richest man in rugby league he's a naturally gifted Elite athlete receiving offers from several different sporting codes to play in their competition he won the Delan medal as Player of the Year while missing eight games almost a third of the season however he's had his struggles in his life with a life-threatening brain infection and a tragic death of a younger brother this is the story of ponga Kalin ponga was born on the 30th of March 1998 in Port heand Western Australia he would move around a lot when he was young moving to Queensland to New Zealand then back to Queensland where his family would settle in McKay he played a variety of different sports growing up playing rugby league Rugby Union touch footy hockey soccer and was a top tier golf player winning the under 13s National Golf Championship in New Zealand he went to Mckay High School and joined the Rugby League Academy program also playing Junior rugby league for South McCay in 2012 he was selected for the Australian School Board was under 15 sight making him only the second player to make the site at 14 years old in 2013 pong got a scholarship with the Brisbane Broncos and moved to Brisbane he went to the Anglican Church grammar school and played in the Rugby Union site in the GPS competition he was also playing rugby league for the East tigers in the seral Cornell cup and he played in the under 15 school boy side again during his time in Brisbane he also played Aussie rules being played place in the Brisbane Lions Academy list at the end of 2013 at the age of 15 he was being chased by six different professional clubs across three different sports the Storm and The Roosters from rugby league the Queensland Reds from Rugby Union and the brisban lions from AFL and in December ponga signed a 4-year deal with the North Queensland Cowboys in 2015 ponga played for Australia in the under 18s touch footy trans Tasman series and also played for the Queensland under origin team and later made his under 20's debut for Queensland in 2016 ponga played for Queensland in the under 20s again and at the end of the year he made his NRL debut for the Cowboys on the wing in the final series during the offseason it was announced on the 28th of November that ponger had signed a 4-year contract with the Newcastle nights starting in the beginning of 2018 the deal made him the highest paid teenager in history in 2017 he played at fullback for the first time in first grade in round three of the Season between 2015 and 2017 he played for the Cowboys in the Holden cup playing 44 games scoring 32 tries and kicking 42 goals in the under 20s and playing nine games in first grade scoring three tries during this time there was some tragic news that was revealed from pong's life he talked about a lifethreatening brain infection he had in his head in his final years of school they kept in bed ridden for several months and also a devastating loss of his younger brother he was just 18 months old when he tragically drowned ponga was only seven at the time I was just a little kid as I got older and definitely now I can see why it's B us so close life's pretty short so you have to make the most of it ponga has a bumblebee tattooo to honor his brother ponga was eligible in 2018 to represent both Australia and New Zealand in test footy as he lived in New Zealand for several years when he was younger but he wanted to play for Queensland therefore being eligible for Australia and around one of the Season he made his debut for the knights as they beat the mly SE Eagles in a nail biding golden Point 19 to 18 win he scored a try and kick three goals in the match later in the year he made his origin debut for Queensland in the second game of the series he played Off the Bench and out of position and even though Queensland lost he still had a fantastic origin debut he played 20 games for the knights this year from the fullback position scoring six stries and kicking 26 goals the 2019 season started with ponga playing in the NRL All Stars for the marry team and in the opening round of the regular season moved from fullback to 5'8 but only played there for three games before moving back to fullback in round four throughout the year he played in the first two Origin Games at fullback and finished the season playing 20 games for Newcastle scoring 11 tries and kicking 47 goals in Octo October Pung was named in the Australian side for the 2019 Rugby League World Cup 9 competition in 2020 he started the year again playing in the All Star marry team and continued solid form playing at fullback for the nights throughout the year he played an 18 games scoring 10 tries kicking 46 goals in the middle of the year he extended his contract with Newcastle until the end of the 2024 season with the last two years being optional pong wood missed the start of the 2021 season due to injury but returned in round five and in round six he scored two tries in a man of the match performance as the knights beat the Sharks 26 to 22 he got injured in round nine and returned in round 16 where he earned the man of the match again against the Cowboys in the knight's 38 to nil win this one game was enough for ponga to be picked for the third game of the origin series and was a part of their 20 to 18 win he played 15 games this year for Newcastle scoring ing eight tries and kicking 10 goals in 2022 ponger had signed a new contract with the Newcastle Knights keeping him at the club for another 5 years until the end of 2027 replacing the existing contract that was in place the contract is now worth 1.4 million this season making him the highest paid player in NRL history ponga started 2022 strong and played his way into all three Origin Games in the third game ponga received man of the match in the decider of the origin SE series he ran 299 run meters nine of them were kick returns and 75 post contact meters also three line breaks and 18 tackle breaks and a try a few weeks after the game in Round 19 pong would receive a concussion that would leave him out for the remainder of the season this was a worrying sign for him because he had recently had similar incidents and the compiling effect of brain injuries could lead to Serious long-term damage while pongan was supposed to be recovering he was caught with teammate curent man in the toilet cubicle at a PB intoxicated there was speculation whether the pair had been taking drugs and were later drug tested the results came back negative and ponger insisted that he was in there because he was sick ponga played 14 games for Newcastle this year scoring four tries and kicking 12 goals moving to 2023 ponga would make a move back to the 5A position for the start of the season and in round two was taken from the field with another concussion within the first 2 minutes of the game this was pong's fourth concussion in the past 10 months he would end up traveling to Canada to get Advanced tests on his brain to determine if he had brain damage if the result came back positive he would likely be forced into an early retirement but luckily for him there was no signs of brain damage after his recovery he would return around eight as the knights continued their Rocky season after a few weeks back playing he returned to fullback towards the end of of the season the knights would be sitting at 14th on the ladder at round 17 then the knights went on a niname winning streak to end the regular season jumping them up the ladder into fifth place they would beat the camber Raiders in a grand final style Thriller in the first round of the finals to extend their win streak to 10 in a row but would lose to the Warriors in the next week of the finals even though ponga missed out on eight games during the regular season he was still awarded the Delan Med as Player of the Year and received a fullback of the year as well he played 20 games this year for the nins scoring nine tries and kicking 46 goals this year in 2024 he started the season as normal playing in the first six rounds then in round seven he would leave the field with a foot injury and was ruled out for the next several weeks and only returned to the field in round 18 as Newcastle beat the Raiders 16 to 12 this game would be enough for ponga to be called back into the Queensland side for games three and the deciding game of the origin series he played Off the Bench but didn't have the impact that I'm sure queenslanders were hoping for and they lost the game 14 to4 kin ponga is truly an exceptional player who has overcome a lot of setbacks in his life to be where he is today he's currently the highest paid player in the league and is likely to stay this way until the end of 2027 thanks for watching if you enjoyed be sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel I post videos like this this twice a week and if you want to watch another one click the video on screen