Glenwood youth to join Under-14 Boys Futsal World Cup in Brazil

Matthew Tindale is always on guard, and his lightning reflexes will pay off when he travels to Brazil for the Under-14s Futsal World Cup.

Matthew Tindale, pictured on the Futsal courts at the Stanhope Leisure centre, will represent Australia at the U14 Boys Futsal World Cup in Brazil

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Matthew Tindale is always on guard, which comes in handy when he’s defending the goals on the futsal court. The 13-year old from Glenwood was recently selected to represent Australia in the Under-14 Boys Futsal World Cup in Brazil.

“Futsal is a lot faster than soccer,” Matthew said. “There’s more action, more things happening, so you can’t just have a break.”

Matthew began playing the game socially when he was five years old, but now sees himself taking his love of the sport to the highest level.

“I’d like to do this forever,” he said. “It’s very tense on the court, now I see that playing for Australia is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s not going to happen every day.”

The upward trajectory of Matthew’s futsal career came with his selection for NSW City West national schools championship team last year and again this year.

Matthew will head overseas next year to represent Australia at the Futsal World Cup

“They always have scouts at national championships,” he said.

“There’s a lot of competition; when you think about it, there’s five people on each team and the subs and each team is being watched, so there’s a lot of people to compete against to get selected for the Australia side.”

The Glenwood High School student will now enter the training boot camp in Ballarat and plans on sticking with the NSW City West side as they face off at the next championship in Brisbane in September.

During the futsal off-season Matthew plays soccer with the Glenwood Redbacks.

Matthew is this week’s Local Sports Stars award nominee in the individual category. The Local Sports Stars awards have five categories including Local Sports Star Team, Young Sporting Spirit and Service to Sport.

Details: localsportsstars.com.au