From Falcao to Neto: Premier Futsal signs top international stars for five years

New Delhi: Premier Futsal has signed a battery of decorated futsal stars from around the world to compete in the sport’s first-ever multi-national league starting on July 15. Premier Futsal unveiled Alessandro Rosa Vieira, the sport’s most renowned player fondly known as Falcao, as the league’s first big signing last month. Now, joining him are 18 other futsal stars from across eight nationalities. The roster of players signed includes the Best Player in the World Cup award winner Dovenir Domingues Neto; two-time winner of the UEFA Best Player accolade and five-time winner of the UEFA Golden Shoe Adriano Foglia; twice winner of the Best Goalkeeper of the World honours Santiago Daniel Elias; and world championship silver-medallist and three-time European Golden shoe-winning Spaniard Miguel Marti Sayago. [caption id=“attachment_2735652” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Official logo of the proposed Premier Futsal League. [/caption] Other celebrated stars of the sport taking part include Russian Romulo Alves Nobre, compatriot Cirilo Tadeus Cardoso Filho, Italian Carlos Eduardo Morgado Oliveira, Brazilian Wagner Pereira Caetano, Argentine Maximiliano Daniel Rescia, Iranians Hossein Tayyebi and Mostafa Nazari. All players have committed to competing in Premier Futsal for five years and will be assigned a team in the upcoming player draft scheduled for later this month. Premier Futsal Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer Abhinandan Balasubramanian said, “This is a massively exciting announcement for Premier Futsal. To have some of the sport’s most celebrated stars committing to play in the league not for one but five years is a massive vote of confidence for us. “There’s some real momentum behind us now and we are looking forward to what promises to be a cracking inaugural season with a whole lot of anticipation.” Premier Futsal, promoted by Xavier Britto of Indev Group, is the world’s first-ever multi-national Futsal league and promises to bring the legends of football and futsal together for the first time. Led by the ‘Pele of Futsal’ Alessandro, the league will feature over 50 International Futsallers from four continents and 21 countries. Each franchise will be assigned a marquee international player, seven international and five Indian Futsallers through a player draft. The league will be telecast live and exclusive on Sony SIX, SONY ESPN and Sony AATH. Matches will also be available to live stream on Sony LIV.