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AFC - Iranian futsal legend Vahid
Shamsaee believes the institution of an annual award by the AFC to
honour the best Asian futsal player will help in popularising the game
in Asia.
The 30-year-old star is not surprisingly one of the chief contenders for
the AFC Futsal Player of the Year award, a long overdue addition to the
AFC Futsal Team of the Year award.
“I did not know about the new futsal award,” Shamsaee told
www.the-afc.com. “The day after the announcement (about my nomination)
was made I woke up to see many congratulatory SMS messages from my close
friends, team mates and fans.”
“But I thought something was wrong and believed the news only when I
watched the sports news on TV at the airport.”
But, it would have been indeed surprising had Shamsaee not made the
shortlist which also has Abdul Kadir Otail (Iraq), Andrei Pestryakov
(Kyrgyzstan), Hurshid Tajibaev (Uzbekistan) and Kenichiro Kogure
(Japan).
After all, Shamsaee, who credits his futsal skills to gol koochik, a
popular Iranian street game involving a smaller ball and reduced
goal-posts, has topped the goal-scoring tables in all the eight AFC
Futsal Championships held so far and played a key role in Iran winning
seven of these.
“I am really happy about the nomination. Such awards will promote futsal
in our continent. You can motivate players to do more in the one
continental tournament we have every year through such prestigious
awards,” said Shamsaee, whose No 9 jersey is a big hit with fans.
“It is also a personal honour as I am the only Iranian player to be
nominated. I am proud of representing my country in this year’s awards
celebration.”
Shamsaee made it clear that despite his age, he still had years of
futsal left in him. “I want to continue (playing) and after a couple of
years I will decide what to do,” said Shamsaee, who sruts his stuff for
Tam Irankhodro club and is currently the Iran Futsal League top-scorer.
“I want to help the development of Futsal in my country and of course in
Asia after ending my playing career. But right now I still enjoy scoring
goals!” |
