OTTAWA, Ontario — Futsal and soccer walk together side by side. Many international soccer superstars such as Neymar Junior, Andres Iniesta and Ronaldinho Gaúcho, grew up playing inside their neighborhoods’ courts before they started to show their skills to the world inside a soccer field.

The five-a-side game not only develops the technical skills from players, but it also improves athletes’ spatial awareness, as they have a very limited time to think when the ball arrives at their feet.

Even though the sport is well developed in South America and Europe, North America is a place where futsal is still growing.

Canada has never played in a futsal world cup tournament since its creation in 1989. Going south, the United States has been part of the championship six times, and their second place finish in 1992 has been their best result so far. In the 2021 FIFA Futsal World Cup, the Americans were able to qualify for the tournament after eight years, and they got knocked out in the first stage of the tournament.

It takes time and motivation to make the futsal’s culture strong in North America. Andre Laurin, College La Cité’s coach, is one of the members of the futsal community who has the mission to develop the sport in Canada.

For the last 12 years, Laurin has been dedicating his time to teach athletes to improve their skills inside futsal courts. He said he started to teach futsal while he was still a student athlete, and in 2013 a high school offered him the opportunity to be the leader of a project to develop the school’s futsal department.

During his career as a futsal coach, the Canadian has collected many trophies such as the 2017 Hiver Ottawa Carlton Futsal League Division I, the 2017 Coupe Ottawa and the 2018-19 Premiere Ligue de Futsal du Québec (Outaouais Conference).

According to him, his objective for the last seven years was to make the sport his main way of getting money, and the goal is being accomplished step by step.

“At this moment, I work full time at a soccer club and one of my main tasks is to develop futsal in our region,” the coach said.

To flourish new ideas inside the young generation’s heads, Laurin cultivates a healthy relationship with his players and discussions are always welcome. The College La Cité´s alumnus believes is important to spend a part of his day sharing his game ideas with his athletes.

“To give you an idea, I spend one hour every day talking to them about futsal,” he said. “Their positioning, or just to see if everything is good with my plans.”

According to the coach, futsal is the perfect sport for North Americans due to the elements which can be attractive such as the fast pace, the skills and lots of goals. He also said the sport is growing fast and a college futsal league in Canada would be a good idea to develop the game even more.

“The next step would be to have college futsal league such as the ones in Alberta and Manitoba,” he explained. “Ontario and Quebec would benefit to have college futsal league and, eventually, university leagues with CIS.”

Now, the coach has the mission to lead CS Aylmer, the club where he is a coach, to the Canadian Championship in April 2022. So far, his team has already collected three victories in the first matches of the Quebec Premier Futsal League, and he is satisfied with the way the players have played so far.

“We have a hard-working group of players working towards the same goal,” Laurin said.

This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.