Islamic College girls Danya and Sanaa in Aussie futsal team heading to Spain for world cup

Years of training pays off for two Brisbane girls who are ready to kick their way into world futsal championship history.

Two 14-year-old girls from Queensland’s largest Islamic school have created history by being chosen to play futsal for Australia at the Costa Blanca Cup in Spain this month.

Danya Mustafa and Sanaa Yusuf, both from the Islamic College of Brisbane, will play at the international invitational tournament, after being selected by the Australian Futsal Association.

Danya made the under 16 team and Sanaa is in the under 14s.

It’s the first time students from the college, at Karawatha, south of Brisbane, have been chosen to represent a national futsal team.

Both girls will wear their traditional hijabs for the competition and both said it was a tremendous honour.

Their selection caps off years of practising and they were spotted while playing in Queensland teams at January’s National Futsal Championships in Brisbane.

Sanaa Yusuf and Danya Mustafa will play in the Australian futsal team heading to Spain for this year’s Costa Blanca Cup. Both are students at the Islamic College of Brisbane and will play wearing their traditional hijabs after being selected by the Australian Futsal Association.

Year 10 student Danya, chosen in the squad despite injuring her posterior cruciate ligament at January’s nationals, said it had always been a dream to play for Australia.

“Ever since I started kicking a ball when I was about three years’ old,” she said.

“I actually missed the semi-finals for Queensland and have only just got the clearance to play for the country, which is fantastic news.

“Not only will it be the first time I’ve played for Australia, but also the first time I’ve travelled to Spain, so I’m very excited.”

Danya Mustafa looks for a break while training on the grounds at the Islamic College of Brisbane. She has been selected to play at the international invitational tournament in Spain.

Sanaa, in year 9, is also looking forward to her first trip to Spain.

She said she hoped her selection would “inspire other young girls to shoot for their dreams”.

“I was thrilled to find out I’d been selected,” she said.

“I used to play soccer before I took up futsal a few years ago, and now all the hard work is paying off.

“With training for school and club required most days of the week, it’s important to ensure we’re also devoting the necessary time to achieving our academic goals.”

Each team has five players including a goalkeeper and unlike other forms of indoor soccer, it is played on a hard court surface with a smaller, harder, lower-bounce ball than football.

Islamic College of Brisbane chief executive Ali Kadri said it was a wonderful achievement for the girls and followed a concerted campaign by the college, which has 1500 students and was founded in 1995.

Two 14-year-old girls from Queensland’s largest Islamic school have created history by being chosen to play futsal for Australia at the Costa Blanca Cup in Spain this month.

“Futsal is such an inclusive sport, which is important when you consider our college is so diverse, with our students representing 52 different nationalities,” Mr Kadri said.

“With that in mind, we decided to increase funding by about 30 per cent over the past few years and introduce an excellence program and expand and update our futsal court.

Islamic College of Brisbane chief executive Ali Kadri said his students were reaping the rewards from futsal.

And now we’re reaping the rewards – we’ve got about 200 students, both boys and girls, playing in 19 teams between years 3 and 12, who are all being coached by our teachers.”

The college’s U12 Girls Futsal team finished first in AFA’s Australasian School Championships in 2018.

Danya and Sanaa will continue training with their school team, before meeting up with their Australian teammates ahead of the Costa Blanca Cup tournament, which will take place in Benidorm between June 30 to July 12.