Courtesy: Queensland Times


Futsal player to travel to Brazil


by Chris Garry

15th December 2010

IPSWICH has produced yet another exciting young futsal (indoor football) player who has booked herself a trip to a South American paradise.

Yamanto resident Chelsea Sarandis has been selected for the Australian under-18 team to contest the Futsal Women’s Junior World Championships.

Sarandis and her Australian team-mates will play matches against countries from across the globe and be based primarily in the tourist hub of Rio Di Janeiro, flush with beautiful beaches and stunning scenery.

But she will not be the only teenage girl representing Ipswich at the tournament.

Sarandis will be joined by Ashleigh Knight and Katelyn Muckert who will also travel to Brazil next year.

Both Knight and Muckert are strikers who started playing futsal at the same time and are now best friends who will undoubtedly room together on the trip.

All three girls go to Bremer State High School and will set off to Brazil in August next year.

Sarandis is a goalkeeper and a striker, an odd combination in outdoor football but not abnormal in futsal.

Sarandis said she was not going to use the trip as an excuse to have a holiday.

“I’m really excited about the trip,” Sarandis said.

“I might get a bit of free time after the tournament to sightsee and go to the beach but I’m more interested in the skills I will learn.

“The coaching over there is supposed to be really good so hopefully it sinks in and I become a much better player.

“That’s what I want – to come back from the trip a better futsal player.”

Sarandis has never been overseas before.

In fact her travel diary is limited to one page stamped Adelaide, the city where she was born.

“I can’t wait. Brazil will be amazing,” Sarandis said.

“I don’t think my parents are too worried about me, but they probably are.”

Futsal is very popular in Brazil with a professional league established, attracting a vast legion of supporters.

While it is not nearly as popular as outdoor football (soccer), futsal is attracting a healthy playing number in Australia.

In fact, Sarandis, who plays for the Ipswich Knights in the local Ipswich competition, said she preferred futsal over the outdoor variety of football.

“I like the pace of futsal, there’s more variety in the indoor game,” Sarandis said.


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