by Luca Ranocchiari - Futsalplanet.com editor

The boy from Severouralsk has taken his decision, probably the hardest and most painful one of an unforgettable futsal career. 32 years, not that "old" being a keeper. A russian keeper. Sergey Zuev was the pride of national futsal, the joy of futsal in the cold Uralsk region, the main pillar of a wonderful 99% russian club (the ukrainian Ildar Makayev was the "legionary", as they say there) Viz-Sinara (nowadays just "Sinara"), able to conquer Europe coming from Ekaterinburg, so far away from the "well-known" area of continental futsal, the one we thought could just reach Moscow.

Sergey Zuev says "no more", but that's not about his futsal career. He won't wear anymore "just" the russian national team shirt, the Sinara's one is still waiting for him, as usual.

Private reasons for that, he won't get into details. But, also, something more. Declarations given to his personal blog (click here) and reported by championat.com (see this link) are quite clear and can maybe finally take under the spotlights the "big lie" of some continental futsal nations which still use naturalized players in their rosters. Or we'd better say: take under the spotlights what really matters, namely the lack of players formation in some countries (just talking about Euro 2012, Italy and Azerbaijan are significant and obvious examples) or the "weird" choice to put out good "national players" in order to have something more with 1,2,3 brazilians (can you believe that strong futsal nations like Portugal [not in Zagreb due to the Leitao absence], Russia or Spain still feel the need to select naturalized players?).

"I cannot accept that in our team some players are discriminated, while the others are praised just because they are foreigners. And despite all the contribution of russian players, the foreign ones are always preferred. I think that our futsal federation will not have any troubles with my departure, as we have many young and talented players. Otherwise, in the end, they can always call any guy from abroad, who plays well. As we can see get a passport in our league is not a problem. Also I have a personal (family) reason for this decision, but that's private and i will not write about it here."

Bitter words, no doubts. You can obviously object that Zuev didn't use the same words when just Cirilo, Pelè Junior and Pula were in the team and his starting five place was not yet threatened by Gustavo. You can tell it, but that can't fix the continental futsal troubles in terms of development and players formation.

We have discussed about "the matter" for the last years, but our voice has been reduced to silence by people smarter than us or just by lack of interest in futsal development. Let's hope that words coming from the best goalkeeper of the world 2008, one of the best ever interpreters of this role, may have a stronger echo.

What's the meaning of taking part in a continental competition with players coming from another part of the world? Is this development? Is this real glory for the respective FAs? How can you deny to local guys the hope to get a place in your national team or top clubs? Which is the satisfaction from passing exams counting on "students who don't belong to your school"?

So many questions for futsal experts (cause fortunately we're just fans), we need an answer. Or better: we need to hear an answer from them. Cause the answer is quite easy, if you're ready to accept it.

We believe Sergey Zuev is absolutely wrong: Russian National Team will desperately miss him, and is not just a matter of saving a ball during a prestigious tournament. There's something more: sometimes pride is stronger than titles.




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