Special thanks to Tony Chan and Rob Varela for their useful collaboration!

Australian Futsal goes to Europe

In April of this year, Greg Giovenali, a 16 year-old Australian Futsal player, travelled with his coach Tony Chan to CVM Lazio Calcio a 5 in Italy. The experience allowed Giovenali to train with experienced players such as Daverson "Dadà" Franzoi, Salvatore Zaffiro and Brazilian World Cup winner (Hong Kong 1992) Sérgio Luís Schiochet "Serginho" , and to learn under the guidance of coach Eduardo Valdez Basso "Morruga". After a successful month of trialling with the Lazio first squad, Giovenali has been offered a contract, to return to Lazio in August. In accepting the offer from Lazio, Giovenali becomes the first Australian player to play Futsal professionally, for a club outside Australia.

Following this Italian leg, Giovenali and Chan flew onto Spain in May, where they met up with two other 16 year-old Australian players, Matthew Dorigo and Isaac Wadick, for a similar programme with Gervasport Atletico Boadilla. The three players (who all play for ThoseWithFaith and Dural, two Futsal clubs based in Sydney, Australia, who have helped to support these programmes) had the opportunity to train and to learn for one month from Javier Lorente, a legend in the game of Futsal, as well as other top Spanish players, including Alberto Cogorro and Davichin. Although no contracts were offered, Boadilla were also impressed by the quality of these Australian players and are keen to continue the "Futbol sin Fronteras" programme in the future.

Dorigo, Giovenali and Wadick were all very happy with their experience both in terms of Futsal and in terms of the cultural exposure. Their coach, Chan, had the following to say:"This is a very important step for the growth of Futsal in Australia. It is a tremendous achievement for Greg to be the first Australian player to play Futsal as a professional in Europe. It is also good for the sport, that clubs like ThoseWithFaith and Dural now have strong links with two excellent clubs in Europe, who will now be able to build new programmes, both to better the development of players in Australia, and to offer Australian players a career path in the sport of Futsal.

"It is important for Australian Futsal, that good players are continually being exported to better leagues around the world. Only this way will these players develop, through better coaching and better competition, to become world class players. Then, when they return to Australia, they will be able to pass on the knowledge that they have learned to help the sport of Futsal in this country".

These are exciting times for Futsal in Australia, and these may be the programmes needed for the sport to reach its maturity in the land "Down Under".