The missing link in youth Football player development in South Africa - Futsal

The missing link in youth Football player development in South Africa - Futsal

In lesson 28 of 31 days in the Football industry I talk about a big part of the crown jewels that is missing in developing young footballers in South Africa. Youth development is a jigsaw puzzle that requires a systematic and scientific approach for players to transform from rough diamonds to become the finished article. Years upon years of training is required to develop world class football players. Countries such as Brazil, Spain, Japan and Argentina have learnt to manufacture players on a conveyer belt. What is the secret recipe that these countries know that the rest of the world hasn’t caught up on. Well, the secret lies in amongst other factors, in using a small sided version of the game of football from U5 – U17s called Futsal.

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What is Futsal you may ask? The term futsal (five a side soccer) comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word for soccer, Futbol or Futebol. The Spanish or Portuguese word for “indoor” is Salon or Salao. Futsal means indoor soccer. Futsal is a fast-paced small sided game that originated in Uruguay in the 1930’s through a physical education teacher by the name of Ceriani. It is played all over the world and is the only small sided format of the game recognised by FIFA. The game is played on a hardcourt, four outfield players and one keeper with the outfield players being able to constantly rotate positions. Officially in tournaments it is played on a court slightly bigger than a basketball court and smaller than a handball one, with a size four ball that is slightly heavier than a normal ball that has less bounce. There is unlimited amount of substitutions with the game lasting 40 minutes and there is no offside. The goalkeepers only have four seconds to release the ball. As of 2022, Futsal is played in 170 countries of FIFA’s 209 member associations.

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I was first introduced to the game of Futsal in 2005, by a friend named Lyle Jacobs. He wanted to develop a local futsal league in Pretoria, South Africa. He had witnessed a fast game of football for five a side in Cape Town a few years earlier. In my earlier years of coaching, I couldn’t comprehend the bigger picture in terms of what Futsal can do for a player regarding the acceleration of their development.

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Fast forward to 2014, when the players who played at Kaela Football Club had access to a Futsal court. I saw how it completely transformed the boys technically in a relatively short period of time. ?I am now an advocate of Futsal, I am of the belief that no other small sided game places a player in a high pressure environment like futsal does, especially in replicating quick game related decisions such as dribbling, shooting, transition from attack to defence and from defence to attack, firm weight of pass and other rapid skills for the modern game of football. The intensity of the Futsal game creates situations where a player’s mind is engaged in the game more often than a seven a side small, sided game.


Futsal offers the ability to develop football “intelligence” at an accelerated rate. The nature of the game focuses a lot on developing technical skills and ability in situations of high pressure and is the perfect game to develop football competencies suited for the full field game. As a result of the reduced pitch, the players need to think and decide quicker, which improves ball control and aids the player in improvising to retain possession or create goal scoring opportunities. The limited space forces players to think fast, with quality on the ball being imperative. To find space, players must constantly pass and move, rotate and interchange positions. These are the fundamentals of football repeated over and over, until they become instinctive.

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Futsal encourages the development of dribbling and passing because of the small spaces and smaller pitch dimensions. The game is great for developing individual and collective technique and is the perfect skill developer for football. Futsal legend Falcao had this to say about the game: ‘Children up to the age of ten should play futsal. Why? Because when you take a forty-minute futsal match and compare it to 40 minutes on an average football match, they touch the ball 400% more often. Tight spaces, they make decisions, they score goals, they give assists. The child interacts more”.

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There are no defined positions in Futsal as there are in football, it is more like basketball and young players in futsal learn to develop defending and attacking skills as well as positional sense in all areas of the pitch. Futsal is ideal for training football concepts on a micro level and because it is a smaller field players gain more touches on the ball. ?Also, players try things they would not risk doing on a football field, which enhances creativity and ensures players think out the box.

FC Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez had this to say about Futsal: “in Futsal, you see whether a player is really talented, you notice the small details in quality, class and technical understanding”.? He further stated that Futsal champions technique over physique and brains over brawn, increasing the ability to develop young players.

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Furthermore, in futsal there are many transitions in possession as possession changes all the time. This places players in transitional moments more than in a 11 a side game. There is no opportunities in the full field game that places players in as demanding 1vs1 transition situations as Futsal. Young players can master the art of attacking, defending and playing on the transition by springing the counterattack because of what they have learnt whilst playing Futsal. In Futsal, teams are often either defending a counterattack or launching one, and these are vital skills all young players need to learn to play at the highest level. Futsal, simulates the world of street football of years gone by.

?I struggle to comprehend why the game was never embraced in South Africa. Especially since it was the perfect alternative to street football. Futsal in South Africa remains an dormant concept that’s an untapped market. There is a senior Futsal league is some provinces and a national championship, but the sport seems to be getting little support from SAFA. There are many tennis courts that can be converted into multi purpose Futsal courts. We, don`t necessarily need the expensive multi purpose facilities to develop the sport at grassroots. We need to find a way as South Africans to develop technically proficient players and participating in Futsal is one such method.


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Constantine Konstin

Haitian Men’s Futsal National Team Coach/Former Trinidad and Tobago Womens Football & Futsal National Team Coach/Men’s Futsal National Team Coach at Trinidad and Tobago Football Association

1 年

Futsal will revolutionize football.

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This is incredible insight and agree with you completely. Let’s close the gap between amateur and professional football and highlight skill and promote meritocracy.

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