09/ FEATURED UMBRO SPONSORED FUTSAL PLAYER– FALCÃO
Alessandro Rosa Vieira, known as Falcão was born in São Paulo, June 8, 1977. Falcão is both a Brazilian Football and Futsal player and has become increasingly known throughout the world for his breathtaking ability in Futsal. In 2004 Falcão was deservedly recognised by FIFA as the world’s Best Futsal Player following his all round performance in the last FIFA World Futsal Cup in Taipei.
He started his football career with Corinthians in 1992. His great ability earned him a place in the Brazilian national Futsal team. After a brief spell in Libertadores Cup 2005 with São Paulo Futebol Clube, Falcão returned to Futsal and nowadays he represents Malwee/Jaraguá, a team from Jaraguá do Sul that won the Liga Futsal (Brazilian futsal championship) in 2005.
The striker, who stands 1.76 metres tall and weighs in at 75 kilos, displays a range of technical ability rarely seen in one player. “You either have natural ability or you don’t”, he reflects. The father of a two-year-old son has increasingly sacrificed individual glory for the good of the team, a quality he freely admits he lacked as a younger man. “At the start of my career I was very focused on myself. All I wanted to do was score goals. But the ideal situation is if I’m scoring and contributing on behalf of the team.”
The Brazilian team of which Falcão captains have been dominant on the world Futsal scene for many years following their distinguished record of 3 Futsal World Championship, (Netherlands 1989 – Hong Kong 1992 – Spain 1996).
With Spain the current FIFA World Futsal Champions the two dominant Futsal nations will do battle again this winter for the right to be claimed FIFA World Futsal Champions 2008 when the tournament will be held in Rio and São Paulo. Falcao’s personal dream is to see futsal achieve Olympic status while he is still in a position to take part. “Futsal was played at the 2007 Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro. Why shouldn’t it be an Olympic discipline in 2012?”
Falcão is the main face of Umbro’s Futsal merchandise and endorsements and symbolises his own personal brand of Futsal.
