What to expect from the artistry on the 40m x 20m canvases in Groningen and Amsterdam

Jamie Fahey - Foto: UEFA Futsal EURO 2022

The Euro 2022 is bigger than ever. A total of 16 teams, four more than in 2018, will compete after a four-year interval for the first time since Jorge Braz’s Portugal made history by winning a first title on a breathless night of extra-time drama against Spain in Ljubljana, Slovenia. So what other historic moments of “total futsal” artistry can we expect on the 40m x 20m canvases in Groningen and Amsterdam?

The game-changers

Portugal must defend their 2018 title without their talisman: the six-times world player of the year, Ricardinho. O Mágico called time on his international career after Jorge Braz’s men captured the 2021 World Cup in Lithuania. Who’s ready to fill the magician’s void? For Portugal, Sporting’s pivot Zicky Té, a graduate from the streets just like Ricardinho, offers rich promise aged 20. Serbia’s Jovan Lazarević, 24, is another to watch. As is Spanish winger Catela, 26, drafted in by coach Fede Vidal along with fellow Valdenpeñas winger Chino. “My game is freedom,” says Catela, who attributes his freewheeling left-footed wizardry to incessant street games in Cadiz as a boy.

Among the old stagers, Spain’s Barcelona duo Adolfo and Sergio Lozano, returning from injury, will no doubt shine. As will the array of Brazilian exports sporting the colours of adopted nations: Italy’s majestic winger Merlim, Russia’s 1v1 showdown king Robinho, Azerbaijan’s Thiago Bolinha, and Kazakhstan’s imperious duo Taynan and Douglas Junior.

Then there’s Leo Higuita, the sharp-shooting five-times best goalkeeper in the world whose prowess has propelled his club side AFC Kairat and adopted nation, Kazakhstan, to the European elite.

The goals

Ricardinho leaves an indelible Euros legacy: four seconds of magic against Serbia in Belgrade at Euro 2016, a strike inspired by another Dutch street artist, the freestyle icon Issy “Hitman” Hamdaoui who enjoyed a short spell at Inter Movistar in Madrid with Ricardinho.

The Serbian goalkeeper Miodrag Aksentijević and defender Marko Pršić, left in a crumpled heap on the court that night, will no doubt be relieved Ricardinho is not around to repeat this feat when Serbia go head to head with Portugal in the opening match.

Although Ricardinho’s Issy “Akka” wonder goal may not be eclipsed, there will be goals. And plenty of them. In the qualifiers, 49 teams playing 155 games racked up nearly 900 goals. With a record 32 games to come, a similar goals-per-game ratio could yield a tally close to 200 goals. 

The record goal-fest so far came in Belgrade in 2016. A total of 20 matches brought 129 strikes, with 10 of them coming in the pulsating final as Spain overcame Russia 7-3 after racing to a four-goal lead within 17 minutes.

The firsts

First-time qualifying countries include Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia and Slovakia, whose presence gives Tomáš Drahovský a platform worthy of his exquisite talent.

But it’s the Finns who capture the imagination. Led by genuine futsal royalty, the revered tactician Mico Martić, the Finns are on a roll. Since Martić took over in 2013, the game in Finland has grown from the bottom up and at the elite level the men’s team beat the mighty Spain for the first time ever. On court, Panu Autio leads the way. Now 36, the iconic captain boasts a century of goals for Finland in a career starting age 18 after switching from floorball and ice hockey.

Martić has previous for breaking new ground. As a player he first represented Yugoslavia, then Croatia, scoring the opening goal in Uefa’s first full championship in 1999 – an early strike in a dramatic 4-3 victory against the short-lived Federal Republic of Yugoslavia team.

The winners

Finally, will 2022 bring another first, a new winner? Historically, Spain has dominated, with seven titles. Italy (two), Russia (once in 1999) and holders Portugal make up the list of victors. Only Ukraine – facing the Netherlands, Serbia and Portugal in the brutally competitive group A this time –  have reached the final (twice in 2001 and 2003) yet never triumphed.

Sergio Lozano’s return from injury – making the Barcelona man the only former world player of the year (2013) at the tournament – will heighten expectations on coach Fede Vidal to return Spain to the summit. But Portugal’s belief, fuelled by Jorge Braz’s tactical acumen, make a squad comprising FF Napoli’s veteran Bruno Coelho, Barcelona’s Andre Coelho and an A-list of Sporting stars – Zicky, João Matos, Pany (top scorer in Lithuania), Erick and fit-again Cardinal – the team to beat despite the absence of the magician Braz labelled futsal’s version of a hybrid of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

It’s reasonable to envisage the other semi-final as a clash between neighbouring rivals Russia and Kazakhstan – even though the Kazakhs face Slovenia, Italy and the Finns in a power-packed group B. If they succeed in topping the group, the Kazakhs hold a firm chance of capping their remarkable rise, under the guidance of Brazilian coaches Ricardo Kaka and his predecessor Cacau, by exceeding semi-final efforts at Euro 2016 and 2018, and again at last year’s World Cup, when they lost in agonising fashion on penalties to Portugal.

If they make it to the February 6th showdown, the fearsome combination of Brazil-born flair and homegrown Kazakh finesse, especially the powerful Birzhan Orazov and pivot Dauren Tursagulov, could well put a fifth nation on the championship trophy – an achievement befitting, perhaps, of the year in which the Eurasian nation marks the 20th anniversary of a continental switch from the AFC to Uefa.

Jamie Fahey is a Guardian journalist and author of Futsal: The Story of an Indoor Football Revolution. His website is futsalstreetspot.com