Teesside Futsal Player Turns Professional

Middlesbrough Futsal Club’s rapid growth has taken an extra step, proving that futsal in Teesside is well and truly leading the way. Matthew Wootton, one of Boro’s longest serving players has been offered a professional playing contract in Italy with Presti Family Citrarum C5. They play in Serie C1, but such is the popularity of futsal in Italy even teams in the third tier have professional players.

The move came about when Paolo Barbarossa, of Management & Sport Promotion contacted Boro boss Damon Shaw through facebook. He wanted to take the first English player to play in the Italian futsal league.

Matthew Wootton, who helped Boro to the FA Futsal League North Title last season, jumped at the opportunity, with aspirations of playing for England surely to be helped playing at a higher level. Wootton had been training in Italy for a month before returning to England for The FA Futsal League Playoffs, and now that Boro’s season has finished, his transfer to Presti Family Citrarum will go through.

Manager Damon Shaw thinks that it’s a great chance to build a relationship between the two nations. “With Matt now playing in Italy and our good friendship with Paolo I think a lot of doors will open to help both countries. Italy is one of the leading futsal nations and if we can follow their lead, some years down the line we will undoubtedly have professional futsal teams here.”







Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com