ISSUE 48/2015, 4 DECEMBER 2015 ENGLISH EDITION10 – 20 December 2015, Japan FIFA Futsal World Cup...

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ISSUE 48/2015, 4 DECEMBER 2015 ENGLISH EDITION

Fédération Internationale de Football Association – Since 1904

COMPETITION FOR THE BIG TEAMSSouth American national teams

THAILAND DEAF PLAYERS SHINE AT FUTSAL WORLD CUP

“LIVE YOUR GOALS” SCOTTISH WOMEN LEND A HAND IN GAMBIA

PORTUGAL IKER CASILLAS BACK ON SONG

T H I S W E E K I N T H E W O R L D O F F O O T B A L L

North and Central America 35 members www.concacaf.com

South America 10 members www.conmebol.com

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FIFA’s magazine The FIFA Weekly is published in four languages every Friday and is also available free of charge on smartphone and tablet. http://www.fifa.com/mobile

FIFA Club World Cup

10 – 20 December 2015, Japan

FIFA Futsal World Cup

10 September – 1 October 2016, Colombia

6 The new South America

Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador and Colombia are providing Brazil and Argentina with some serious competition, shifting South American football’s balance of power in the process. Sven Goldmann examines why some nations are on the up while others are struggling to make a fresh start, and looks ahead to Luis Suarez’s hotly anticipated return to the international stage.

15 Denmark With a combination of statistical insights and personalised support, FC Midtjylland are using both their hearts and heads in a bid to defend their championship crown.

28 Live Your Goals Scottish club Glasgow Girls FC travelled to Gambia to promote women’s football and support FIFA’s Live Your Goals campaign.

37 Mandy Islacker The Germany striker could hardly have made a better start to her international career, scoring two goals in her first two games.

16 Mexico France striker Andre-Pierre Gignac fired Tigres into the Apertura semi-finals.

18 Sweden National team goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson on the Turkish league, competition for places and his future.

Competition for the big teamsColombia and Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez is our cover star this week. This photograph was taken in Spain in May 2015.

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T H I S W E E K I N T H E W O R L D O F F O O T B A L L

Europe 54 members www.uefa.com

Africa 54 members www.cafonline.com

Asia 46 members www.the-afc.com

Oceania 11 members www.oceaniafootball.com

22 Thailand Deaf footballers have been showing off their skills at the Futsal World Cup in Bangkok. (Pictured: Thailand’s Nares Numpakdee)

17 Portugal Porto celebrated their 1,500th league win against Tondela. (Pictured: Yacine Brahimi)

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U N C O V E R E D

South America! For lovers of the beautiful game, the continent conjures up images of inspired football, spirited fans and stadiums steeped in tradition. Then there are the big names, from Diego

Armando Maradona, Pele, Enzo Francescoli and Elias Figueroa to modern-day stars such as Lionel Messi and Neymar.

Now there are signs of radical change on the subcontinent, with giants Argentina and Brazil beginning to encounter some serious competition. Ambitious, talented players are pulling on Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Uruguay shirts, ready to bring the dominance of A Seleção and La Albiceleste to an end.

With CONMEBOL’s 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying competition now well underway, the ultimate goal for all these teams is to earn a ticket to Russia. Starting on page six, Sven Goldmann reports on a possible changing of the guard in South American football. Å

Sarah Steiner

In transition

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All about Suarez Uruguay fans celebrate their striker’s comeback.

S O U T H A M E R I C A

A CHANGING CONTINENTArgentina and Brazil’s years of South American dominance are over as football hits new heights in Uruguay, Colombia and Chile, writes Sven Goldmann.



Matthias Hangst / Getty Images


Lionel Messi The Argentinian playmaker reflects on his team’s Copa America final defeat by Chile on 4 July 2015.

The future will begin where the past left off: in northern Brazil, where the weather can become oppressively hot and muggy in the height of the South American summer. The difficult climatic conditions will not bother Luis Suarez, who has been counting the months, weeks and days until he can finally do the thing he enjoys most of all: score goals for Uruguay in games that count, rather than friendly matches against Oman or Saudi Arabia. Organised by Conmebol, the conti-nent’s FIFA World Cup qualifying competition is akin to a small South American league, with all

ten participating nations playing each other home and away. Having been forced to watch his team’s progress from afar to date, Luis Suarez has now served his full suspension – nine competitive international games extending across al-most two years from June 2014 to March 2016 – for biting Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. “The greatest punishment was being unable to be part of this fantastic team,” said the Barcelona star.


Raring to go Luis Suarez will make his competitive Uruguay return on 26 March 2016 after serving a nine-game suspension for biting an opponent.

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Thanks to the match schedule, Suarez will make his come-back in the most spectacular fixture possible as he and La Ce-leste visit their much larger neighbours Brazil at Recife’s Arena Pernambuco, just 300 kilometres south of Natal, the setting for that fateful attack on Chiellini. Uruguay have made a surpris-ingly strong start to the Eliminatorias, winning three of their first four matches while suffering just one narrow defeat to Ec-uador in the rarefied mountain air of Quito, and will be able to play at an even higher level after welcoming arguably the world’s best penalty-box striker back into their ranks.

This fresh start is neatly symbolic of the power shift cur-rently underway in South American football. Gone are the days when Argentina and Brazil soared high above their rivals. A Seleção are still suffering from the trauma of their 7-1 thrash-ing by Germany in Belo Horizonte and, apart from global su-perstar Neymar, are not currently blessed with the kind of talent that Torcedores from Fortaleza to Porto Alegre have been accustomed to cheering on for decades now. Brazil failed to deliver on the hopes raised by their new beginnings under coach Carlos Dunga at the Copa America in Chile in June. Meanwhile, the proud Argentinians are faced with the creep-ing suspicion that they are no longer the force they once were on the international stage, having lifted their last FIFA World Cup Trophy back in 1986 and celebrated their most recent Copa America triumph in 1993. Even shining light Lionel Messi can cut a frustrated figure in a sky-blue-and-white shirt.

Ecuador amaze with four winsThe continent’s entire footballing landscape is changing. Al-though Ecuador are currently in dazzling form with four wins from four in the Eliminatorias, time will tell if this is more than just a momentary high for a team who exited both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Copa America 2015 at the group stages. In any event, the greatest challenge of all for South America’s tradi-tional powerhouses lies elsewhere as a wave of optimism sweeps across Colombia, Chile and Uruguay.

Colombia were the surprise package at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Chile ended their 99-year wait for a maiden Copa America title last summer, and tiny Uruguay have demonstrated their quality by effortlessly shrugging off the Suarez affair and the retirement of national hero Diego Forlan. Veteran coach Oscar Washington Tabarez is building an exciting new side who will get a chance to show just how good they are in Recife on 26 March.

The emergence of this new triumvirate has been trig-gered by a number of factors. Chile are basking in the good fortune of a remarkable group of players hailed as a ’golden generation’ in their homeland and coveted by teams across the globe, while Uruguay and Colombia’s leading profession-als have long been plying their trade at the highest level week in week out. Europe’s biggest and richest clubs have been investing in South American talent for some time now, ex-tending their search far beyond Brazil and Argentina’s bor-ders to unearth players such as Chileans Arturo Vidal


“ The greatest punishment was being unable to be par t of

this fantastic team.”Luis Suarez

Brazil National coach Dunga (centre) is tasked with rebuilding his side after their early Copa America exit to Paraguay (above). A Seleção and Neymar (below) recorded a 3-0 win over Peru in FIFA World Cup qualifying on 17 November 2015.

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His finest hour Diego Maradona at Mexico 1986


There they were again, tak ing to the f ie ld in a f inal against Germany for the third t ime. The FIFA Wor ld Cup Trophy, brought into being in 1971 by Ital ian sculptor Si lv io Gazzaniga, was watching on at the his tor ic Ma -racana s tadium, wait ing to be l i f ted. 2014 was supposed to be the year that Argent ina’s dreams of glor y came true, spurred on by L ionel Messi at the peak of his pow -ers . As the match k icked of f, i t was dif f icult to forget the

Albiceleste ’s famous tr iumph in 1986, when they beat Germany 3 -2 in the f inal, inspired by another giant of the game: Diego Maradona.

It would be unfair to say that Messi disappointed that

day. He was probably the best player on the pitch yet s t i l l fe l l jus t shor t of the ult imate goal . Argenina fai led to put 28 years of hur t behind them by reaching the summit of wor ld football . Ins tead, a tense f inal was won 1- 0 by Ger -many in ex tra - t ime, and decided by the smalles t detai ls ; a subst i tut ion at the r ight moment, a shot dragged jus t wide.

The Italian job: stopping MaradonaAf ter Argent ina won the FIFA Wor ld Cup for the f ir s t t ime on home soil in 1978, i t only took eight years for a second tr iumph to fol low. Maradona was 21 when he was called up to play in his maiden FIFA Wor ld Cup in 1982. Despite his youth, he was already one of his countr y ’s key players, albeit s l ight ly lack ing in physical s trength. At that point , he had only ever played in his homeland, for Argent inos Juniors and Boca Juniors, and s truggled

to impose himself against the more power ful Europeans. The Ital ians in par t icular kept him in check . The eventu -al champions gave Maradona no space and tack led him hard, ef fec t ively knock ing Argent ina out in the second round with a 2-1 win thanks to goals f rom Marco Tardel -l i and Antonio Cabr ini .

In 1986, however, the wor ld witnessed a ver y di f ferent Maradona. By that s tage, he had spent two years at FC

Barcelona and was the s tar at Napoli . To this day, no player has ever made such an impact on any FIFA Wor ld Cup as he did that year when he v ir tually decided games on his own, most memorably in the quar ter - f inal against

England. F ir s t , he scored the infamous ’Hand of God’ goal to make i t 1- 0 and then, four minutes later, doubled the lead with a wonder ful solo run that began inside his

own half. His second s tr ike was voted FIFA Wor ld Cup Goal of the Centur y in an online poll in 2002.

Messi’s last chanceThere are many who c laim that Messi is bet ter than any of his i l lus tr ious predecessors . Such compar isons are of course always f lawed because players come f rom dif fer -

ent eras. Indeed, choosing between, say, Gar y L ineker and Geof f Hurst or Z inedine Z idane and Michel P lat ini is almost impossible. Ult imately, though, the yardst ick of greatness is success at the FIFA Wor ld Cup, and by that measurement Messi has not yet hi t Maradona’s heights . At the nex t FIFA Wor ld Cup in Russia in 2018, Messi wil l be 31. It wil l probably be his las t chance.

Alan Schweingruber

DON’T CRY FOR MEWill Argentina take their next chance at FIFA World Cup glory? Fans from the South American country still wistfully remember 1986, the year Diego Maradona effortlessly inspired his nation to triumph in Mexico.

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(Bayern Munich), Gary Medel (Inter Milan), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal) and Claudio Bravo (Barcelona). Uruguay’s list of stars includes Luis Suarez (Barcelona), Martin Caceres (Ju-ventus), Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain) and Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid) while Colombians James Rodriguez (Real Madrid), Jackson Martinez (Atletico Madrid) and Car-los Bacca (AC Milan) are also key players held in high regard by their respective clubs. The success of these South Amer-ican exports makes them ideal role models back in their homelands and, when combined with the immense sense of national pride customary across the continent, helps to swell their stock of promising footballers.

The beautiful game continues to offer young South Americans the chance to improve their social status or, in the case of Colombia, the standing of an entire nation. If Los Cafeteros are emblematic of a new Colombia that has left behind an age predominantly characterised by violence and drug-related crime, then James Rodriguez is its poster boy. In a poetic coincidence, the national team reached their first FIFA World Cup quarter-final 20 years to the day after the despicable murder of Andres Escobar, who was shot and killed in a Medellin car park after scoring an own goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA.

Colombia drawing on power of exportsJames Rodriguez’s rise to global stardom also represents a success story for Porto, whose business model involves dis-covering talented youngsters in South America before devel-oping them and selling them on for maximum profit. This strategy has enabled the club to generate a €376-million transfer surplus over the past ten years. James was 19 when he arrived in Portugal and now plays for Real Madrid, while his compatriot Radamel Falcao was 23 when he came to Eu-rope and is currently on loan to Chelsea from Monaco after recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

These exports provide Colombian football with more promise than can be found in its own league. Although the country’s domestic championship was attractive to interna-tional stars such as Alfredo di Stefano during the 1940s and 50s, those days have long gone. Of the 23 players in Los Caf-eteros’ 2014 FIFA World Cup squad, only one plays club foot-ball in his homeland. The same applies to the Chileans, while Uruguay’s ranks are exclusively packed with those plying their trade abroad.

For a long time, the inaugural world champions suffered as the significance of their national league diminished. Al-though Uruguay’s Primera Division was once celebrated across the globe, with Montevideo’s two biggest clubs Penarol and Nacional winning a combined eight Copa Libertadores titles, the most recent of these triumphs came 30 years ago. The championship’s subsequent decline is the direct result of an exodus of the country’s best players to Europe. It was some time before Uruguay realised this frustrating situation

James Rodriguez ’s r ise to global stardom is also a success story for Por to.


Dream World Cup goal James Rodriguez scored both goals, the first a stunning volley pictured above, in his side’s 2-0 win over Uruguay. He symbolises the rise of Colombian football.

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was in fact an opportunity to become an exporter of talent. By sending established players to Europe where they are chal-lenged at the highest level every week, Uruguay are inevitably reaping the benefits on the international stage.

Tabarez committed to the task at handIn addition to overseeing the integration of his international stars, Oscar Washington Tabarez is dedicated to building on the country’s sound footballing foundations. Anyone wishing to learn more about these efforts should make their way to the Complejo Celeste, the Uruguayan Football Association’s train-ing centre located just a few minutes from Montevideo’s Carras-co International Airport. Tabarez visits the complex almost every week to contribute to its day-to-day work. As Uruguay do not have a vast reservoir of footballing talent to draw on, they must train the few exceptional players they do have as effec-tively and as early as possible. In fact, working with a specific and manageable number of players may enable more targeted and structured development than if there were tens of thou-sands of talented youngsters to choose from. The fact that


Chile The national team lift the Copa America for the first time on 4 July 2015.

Ecuador La Tricolor defeated Argentina 2-0 in their opening FIFA World Cup qualifier. Sand

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Sou t h A mer i c aContinental Confederation:

Conmebol

Conmebol nations:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,

Chile, Ecuador, Colombia,

Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela

Founded: 1916

Confederation headquarters: Luque, Paraguay

South American FIFA World Cup™ winners:

Brazil (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002),

Uruguay (1930, 1950), Argentina (1978, 1986).

World Cup participants:

Venezuela are the only Conmebol

team yet to qualify for a World Cup.

Population in South America:

Ca. 400 million

everything relating to the beautiful game in Uruguay plays out in the same city also helps: with 12 of the Primera Division’s 16 teams based in Montevideo, the clubs and national association have agreed that the country’s most talented players can train together at the Complejo Celeste three times a week.

The starlets who make it this far can expect to make the switch to Europe in the not-too-distant future, returning to the Complejo in later years amid an atmosphere of excitement and national pride to prepare for major tournaments or Eliminato-rias matches with their international team-mates. Come March, Luis Suarez will once again be among them. With three months to go, he will be counting the days until he is more than just La Celeste’s biggest fan, a role he has played for almost two years now. Anyone who doubts his commitment to the cause need only cast a glance at his recent contributions on Twitter, where Suarez has praised “this wonderful shirt” before each and every one of his compatriots’ games, always adding the battle cry: “Vamos Uruguay, vamos!!!” Å


Uruguay ’s clubs and national association have agreed that the country ’s most talented players

can train together at the Complejo Celeste three times a week.

Uruguay Coach Oscar Washington Tabarez (centre, talking to Maxi Pereira) meets with his national side at the Complejo Celeste (above) before each international match. They did the same ahead of their FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign, where they defeated Colombia 3-0 in their second game on 13 October 2015 (below).

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O N T H E I N S I D ETA L K I N G P O I N T S

by FC Midtjylland. Last season’s surprise champions rely on a dual strategy of scientific analysis and personal development. While the club generate their own detailed statistics on matches and players (not just their own), it also tries to balance this statistical examina-tion by ensuring that every player enjoys indi-vidual mentoring for as long as they are at the club. Using heart and mind, the people in charge of Midtjylland have shown the big clubs from the capital city – FC Copenhagen and Brondby – how to win titles these days.

After the 17th matchday of the current season, Midtjylland find themselves in third place, level on 31 points with second-placed Aalborg BK. They have played one less game,

D e n m a r k : S u p e r l i g a

Decisive battle delayed until the spring

Perikles Monioudis is chief editor of The FIFA Weekly.

The 1992 UEFA European Championship winners will be absent from next sum-

mer's showpiece tournament. Denmark lost their recent play-off to Sweden, whose Zlatan Ibrahimovic denied them a place at Euro 2016. The country’s place on the international football stage has been diminishing for some time. The team that was once known as “Danish Dynamite” has only taken part in the Euros once since 2004 and has only qualified for one FIFA World Cup™ since 2002.

Yet domestic football in Denmark is going strong. With the newest technical knowledge and a determination to succeed, there is always reason to be hopeful, as illustrated

though, after their fixture on 29th November with Copenhagen, who sit top of the Danish Super League on 32 points, was postponed.

The match was a victim of Storm Gorm, which caused damage across much of Den-mark. The top-of-the-table clash will now not take place until the spring as Midtjylland are still involved in the UEFA Europa League and alternative dates are few and far between. FC Copenhagen, meanwhile have expressed their displeasure at the fact that the decision to postpone the match was not made until their team bus had arrived in Herning.

The rivals have one thing in common; they have both refined the art of playing in such a way that they can find the net without the need for a prolific striker. Among the top 19 scorers in the league, there is only one player from either club: Copenhagen’s Kasper Kusk, a midfielder who has five goals to his name. When the league is expanded from 12 to 14 clubs next season, at least the newcomers will stand a chance of winning the Golden Boot award. Å

Bad weather FC Copen hagen’s William Kvist leaves the unplayable pitch in Herning after a wasted journey.

Midtjylland and Copenhagen do not rely

on strikers for goals.

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Goal-hungry Gignac leads Tigres into semi-finals

Annette Braun is a staff writer on The FIFA Weekly.

Reputations are funny things. As one saying goes, “Once you’ve ruined your

reputation, you can live uninhibitedly”. Yet what if someone is keen to transform their negative image back into a positive one, and no longer wants to be ‘uninhibited’?

French striker Andre-Pierre Gignac was labelled unprofessional for a long time, largely because of the extra weight he carried around his midriff. "Big Mac for Gignac" became an unwelcome catchphrase in sections of the French press when he played for Ligue 1 side Olympique Marseille between 2010 and 2015. His club coach Marcelo Bielsa tried to tempt him to lose weight by promising that he would score 25 goals the following season if he could shed two kilograms. Gignac duly lost the weight, even dropping several kilos. And although he only scored 21 times, the club, coach and the player himself were entirely satisfied.

So has Gignac shrugged off his reputation as a passionate consumer of fast food and a man with a disregard for discipline? When the striker moved to Mexican club Tigres over the summer, many people wondered whether he would be able to stick to his strict diet outside of Bielsa’s sphere of influence, and whether he would be able to resist the temptation of tortillas and nachos. Gignac has proved the

doubters wrong and is still scoring goals, netting in the 2-1 first leg victory over Chiapas in the Apertura quarter-finals, as well as in the 1-0 triumph in the return fixture.

The striker has established himself at Tigres, where his nose for goal and reading of the game have enthralled the fans who are now looking forward to him leading the line against Toluca for a place in the title-decider.

By way of contrast, Club Leon’s hopes of progressing to the next round were dashed by Club America. Although Leon won the second leg 2-1, it was not enough to make amends for a 4-1 defeat in the first leg. Leon only earned promotion into Mexico’s top flight in 2011 after a decade in the second tier, but have caused a stir in recent years and developed into one of the heavyweight teams in Mexi-co’s first division. In 2013/14 they won both the Apertura and Clausura titles, but this

year bowed out at the quarter-final stage. Club America move on to face Pumas UNAM in the last four.

That Pumas, who are based in Mexico City, are in the semi-finals at all is thanks in large part to goalkeeper Alejandro Palacios, who ensured his side only lost 1-0 at home to Veracruz in the first leg of their quarter-final tie. Pumas won the return fixture by the same scoreline and booked their place in the last four by virtue of having finished in first place, and therefore above Veracruz, in the stand-ings during the regular season.

Four clubs remain then, vying for the two spots in the final. Provided Gignac can continue his scoring form, his team-mates and Tigres fans would doubtless have nothing against the 29-year-old tucking into a burger or two. They would probably even be happy to join him. Å

Flying high Andre-Pierre Gignac, who moved to Tigres from Marseille in the summer.

Less food, more goals: Andre-Pierre Gignac is

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P o r t u g a l : P r i m e i r a L i g a

Casillas makes amends

Sarah Steiner is a staff writer on The FIFA Weekly.

Variety is not exactly the spice of life in the top flight of Portuguese football – not

as far as its champions are concerned, at any rate. In the division’s 81-year history, only five clubs have ever lifted the Primeira Liga title. Two of those teams – Belenenses (in 1946) and Boavista (in 2001) have only a single champi-onship to their names. The remaining 79 titles have been shared between the three giants of the Portuguese game, Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting Lisbon. That trend shows no sign of abating this season either: Sporting lead the way with 29 points from their opening 11 matches, followed by Porto on 24 points and Benfica on 21 (both with a game in hand).

Porto’s most recent encounter against CD Tondela was regarded as a mere formality – on paper at least. The promoted provincial club are stranded at the foot of the division on five points, having conceded 15 goals in their 11 matches. That Porto managed to come away with the victory, however, was largely down to their goalkeeper, Iker Casillas. The 34-year-old, who signed from Real Madrid last summer, had endured a difficult week at his new club, his error against Dynamo Kiev in the UEFA Champions League having played a crucial role in his side’s 2-0 defeat. Porto could have sealed their place in the next round of the tournament with a draw at the Estadio do Dragao, but their progression is now far from guaranteed.

Against Tondela, though, Casillas went from zero to hero. In the 82nd minute of the contest, Porto defender Maicon tripped John Murillo inside the area, giving the referee little choice but to point to the spot. Salva Chamorro stepped up to take the penalty, but his attempt was kept out by the Spanish

international. Not only did Casillas’ save earn his side a vial three points in the race for the title, it also wrote the club’s name in the history books: the win against Tondela was Porto’s 1,500th league victory.

Casillas’ fellow custodians were not quite as fortunate on Matchday 11. Boavista had led Guimaraes 1-0 at half time, but goalkeeper Mika could do little to prevent Cafu’s 89th-minute strike from nestling in the back of the net and earning the visitors a 2-1 victory. Vitoria Setubal’s Andre Moreira was also beaten in the last minute by Arnold Issoko, whose second goal of the match secured Uniao Madeira a share of the spoils in a 2-2 draw.

Belenenses’ Hugo Ventura, meanwhile, was on the wrong end of a William Carvalho penalty in second-half stoppage time which earned leaders Sporting a narrow 1-0 win at the Estadio Jose Alvalade. Å

From zero to hero Porto’s Spanish World Cup and European Championship winner, Iker Casillas.M

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NameAndreas IsakssonDate and place of birth3 October 1981, Smygehamn, SwedenPositionGoalkeeperClubs played for1999 Trelleborg1999–2001 Juventus2001–2004 Djurgarden2004–2006 Rennes2006–2008 Manchester City2008–2012 PSV Eindhovensince 2012 KasimpasaSweden national team127 caps

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T H E I N T E R V I E W

Andreas Isaksson, it’s often said that goal-keepers only reach their peak after they turn 30. Can the same be said of you?

Andreas Isaksson: I think so. I’m 34 now and last season was a very good one for me. I feel better and better with every game so it’s not a cliché. It’s the ideal age for a goalkeeper and I’m not far off being at the top of my game. I don’t know if that’s true for all goal-keepers as I can only speak for myself, but I feel as if I’m in really good form.

Your form with your club Kasimpasa seems to prove that. They have the best defensive record in Turkey along with Fenerbahce: just nine goals conceded in 11 matches.

Obviously, the goalkeeper deserves some of the praise for that, but even if you’re the best keeper in the world you can’t do any-thing if the team in front of you doesn’t defend properly. The whole team is defending really well, which is great for me as the keeper. I’m delighted we’ve conceded so few goals up to now.

Istanbul’s big three are usually the only clubs you hear about outside Turkey. How would you describe Kasimpasa to fans who are perhaps not familiar with Turkish football?

Kasimpasa are a young team. The club itself is pretty old but the whole set-up is pretty much new, with new facilities and a modern stadium. The club wants to be a major player in Turkish football and we’ve got the team to go out and do that. Everything is in place. Turkish football is improving all the time, and there’s more to it than just the three big clubs. There are some other good sides around and there are great players coming into the Turkish league all the time, and they’re not just signing for Fenerbahce, Galatasaray and Besiktas either. Look at Samuel Eto’o at Antalyaspor.

Now that you’re at an age where you can start to reflect on your career, is there anything you’d choose to do differently? You moved to

Juventus in 1999 at the same time as Edwin van der Sar and spent two years there without playing.

I’d do it all over again. I’ve got no regrets and it was a wonderful experience. I moved from a little club in Sweden to one of Europe’s big teams. Juventus were one of the biggest clubs in the world at the time. There was a massive difference between what I’d been used to and the standard I found at Juve, and the fact is that I learned a lot there. It was a tough time for me personally because I was 18 and on my own in a new country, far away from my parents. The experience really helped me develop, though, both as a player and on a personal level. It was amazing to be able to train with Alessandro Del Piero, Zinedine Zidane and David Trezeguet. What better way to improve than by training with world-class players every day?

You had another testing time at Manchester City between 2006 and 2008, competing for a place with Joe Hart, just before the start of the club’s golden era. What do you remember of your time in England?

I had my opportunities there but I picked up injuries at just the wrong time, right before the start of the season in the two years I spent there, which kind of upset my rhythm. Then there was the fact that Joe Hart was playing really well, so it all made perfect sense. It was just bad luck on my part, and there was nothing unfair about it. That’s the way football works sometimes. Sven-Goran Eriksson was totally justified in making Hart his first-choice keeper. He was honest with me and I accepted his decision.

You’ve held on to your starting place with Sweden despite it all. Has there ever been a time when you’ve worried about losing it?

I’ve always done the best I can and the national team coaches have always believed in me, despite the problems I’ve had at club level. It was important for me to have that support with Sweden, especially from

Lars Lagerback, who’s been a key coach in my career. I’m very grateful to him for having always given me the chance to play for the national team, even when things haven’t been working out for me in my club career.

Ronnie Hellstrom kept goal for Sweden for more than ten years, Thomas Ravelli then kept the job for 16, while you have now held the jersey since 2002. How do you explain the longevity of Sweden’s keepers?

Keepers have to be managed in a different way. I don’t think it’s a position where coach-es should be chopping and changing too much. Confidence is vital if you’re playing in goal. Obviously, keepers are always going to make mistakes now and then and they’re going to have bad patches too. Anyone can have a bad match, but when you’re a goal-keeper you need continuity. It’s important for the rest of the team, which is something the Sweden coaches have always understood.

Sweden has missed the last two World Cups. Would qualifying for Russia 2018 be the ideal way for you to end your career?

We had Germany in our group in the qualifiers for Brazil, and they went on to become world champions. It was no surprise that they won the section, which meant we went into the play-offs, where we played Portugal. They were two very tough games and they were just that little bit better than us. In the previous qualifying competition Denmark took first place and Portugal second, but we didn’t play well and it wasn’t a good campaign for us. As for 2018, that’s a long way away. I’m just focusing on EURO 2016 right now. It might be my last tourna-ment with the national team so I really want to be part of it. Å

Interview by Julien Sebbah

Sweden goalkeeper Andreas Isaksson is in the form of his life at the age of 34. In an interview he discusses his career, the development of Turkish football and

the longevity of Swedish shotstoppers.

“Goalkeepers need continuity”

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P l a c e : Q o o q q u t , G r e e n l a n d

Da t e : 2 1 J u n e 2 0 1 4

T im e : 6 . 3 0 p . m .

Ph o t o g r a ph e r : M a d s P i h l

First Love

Visit Greenland A / S 21T H E F I FA W E E K LY

Salvatore Terranova threw his arms in the air. The Italian had just scored to put his side 6-4 in front against Thailand, and it appeared that the southern Europeans would get off to a perfect start at this World Cup after being handed a tough draw against the tournament hosts in the opening game. No-body knew it at the time, but the match would turn out to be

a defining encounter for the Italians.The fourth edition of the Deaf Futsal World Cup was held in the

heat of Bangkok from 20-28 November 2015, and the tournament brought large crowds of spectators into the indoor sports centre. Naturally enough with the World Cup taking place on their door-step, the locals made the most of the opportunity to support their

F U T S A L

The magic of deaf futsalBangkok hosted the fourth edition of the Deaf Futsal World Cup, a high-quality tournament with excitement right until the very end, writes Reto Thurnherr in

Thailand. Photographs by Thananuwat Srirasant.

national team. Whenever Thailand played, the volume would increase in the indoor arena, which offered spectators a welcome respite from the heat for a couple of hours.

Sensing vibrationsThe opening game was drawing to a close with Italy leading 6-4 when the Thai fans raised the decibels levels once more, waving flags, singing songs and pounding their drums. The match had al-ready entered the 40th and final minute when Thailand’s Nares Numpakdee scored twice to equalise at 6-6, a last-gasp feat made possible by the fact that the clock is stopped whenever the ball is not in play (see the box on page 25). The result meant Italy dropped

Loyal following The Thai team could always count on the support of their fans.Player of the Tournament Thailand’s Nares Numpakdee (c.).


Dutch delight The Netherlands finished fourth behind Russia, Thailand and world champions Iran.

23

Ado Pelito, you previously played in teams with non-deaf players. What was that like in terms of communication on the pitch?

Ado Pelito: It was certainly not easy to begin with. I often could not keep up when the others verbally agreed things on the pitch. A lot passed me by, I was at a disadvantage. My teammates obviously had to get used to me and after a while I got someone to take me to one side to translate the more com-plicated things.

What sort of things were they?Things like tactical instructions or

explanations from the coach. In those cases, the smallest details can make a huge difference. When I understood them it improved my performance.

F U T S A L

Dutchman Ado Pelito has set up an academy designed to integrate deaf football players.

“No one should feel disadvantaged”

Ado Pelito Old hand of the Netherlands team.

You are regarded as a veteran in futsal, having played in every FIFA World Cup™ since 2002. Will this be your last one?

I do not know at this moment in time. If the Dutch youngsters keep developing the way that they are then they will be taking my place soon, but I would like to lend my experience in some way or another.

Well, you have already set up a football academy for deaf players.

That is right. It is important for me that young deaf players are supported and have the chance to play with hear-ing players. I can help in that respect because I understand the communica-tion problems they have. Most coaches have little experience of deaf football-ers. Again, I can help with that integra-

tion. My aim is for deaf players to be so well integrated into the teams that none of them feels disadvantaged.

How was this year’s Deaf Futsal World Cup in Thailand?

It was just brilliant. The tournament gets better every year, not just in terms of quality but organisation too. Å

Ado Pelito was speaking to Reto Thurnherr

two crucial points, which ultimately prevented them from progress-ing beyond the group stage.

For Thailand, meanwhile, it signalled the start of a successful run that took them all the way to the final. Their tireless supporters cheered them on in every game, with the beat of the drums in par-ticular forming a very important component of the fans’ support. The players may be unable to hear it, but they can feel the vibrations in their bodies.

Like the FIFA Futsal World Cup, the Deaf Futsal World Cup is held every four years. In Thailand four different indoor arenas were used, each approximately a 20-minute drive from the centre of Bangkok. A women’s tournament was staged parallel to the men’s

one, but as some countries were forced to withdraw this year due to financial or political reasons, the competitions included 13 and 11 participating sides respectively.

No hearing aids allowedCommunication is vital in football, and that is no different among deaf players. As verbal contact is not possible, they interact using hand gestures and facial expressions. Several referees are situated around the futsal pitch, making it easier to immediately interrupt the game by using visual signals. Some of the hearing-impaired play-ers use hearing aids in their everyday lives, but such devices are not allowed during official futsal matches for reasons of fairness.

Italian organisation Amas Fabio (l.) takes instructions from Salvatore Di Fazio. Hand signals Good communication is vital in deaf futsal.


WHAT IS FUTSAL?Futsal is a game of football played with a goalkeeper and four outfield

players on an indoor pitch measuring 38–42 metres by 20-25 metres

(international standards). A match has two 20-minute halves in which

unlimited rolling substitutions can be made. The clock is stopped for

any interruptions and set-pieces must be taken within four seconds.

The Deaf Futsal World Cup has been staged four times to date.

After editions in Maastricht, the Netherlands in 1996, Sofia, Bulgaria

in 2007, Orebro, Sweden in 2011 and Bangkok, Thailand in 2015, the

host nation for the 2019 tournament has yet to be determined.

F U T S A L

Full results can be found at : http://info2015dfwc.sat.or.th For fur ther information visit : http://deafsocceracademy.com

Full house for the finalsOne of the big names in the futsal world, Vic Hermanns, was present at a number of the matches. The Dutchman, who is coach of Thai-land’s non-deaf futsal national team and lives in Bangkok, was en-thusiastic about what he saw: “There were some very exciting games here played at a really high level.” The highlight of the tournament came on the day of the finals, with gripping encounters between Thailand and Iran in the men’s competition (a 7-3 victory for the latter), and Brazil and Russia in the women’s event (a 3-2 win for Russia). The atmosphere on the day was fantastic at the packed-out Nimiburtr Stadium, where the Thai fans and their drums were of course present in the stands. They were unable to celebrate their

team winning the tournament, but still had plenty to cheer about when Numpakdee was named as the competition’s best player. Å

Reto Thurnherr is hearing impaired and a FIFA employee.

Thailand’s women team The hosts, pictured here in a match against Sweden, finished in eighth place.

Nimiburtr Stadium The stage for the finals, among other games.


Football builds bridges. It has a unique power to inspire friendship, respect and equality. FIFA’s Say No To Racism campaign is part of our commitment to tackle all forms of discrimination in football. Everyone should have the right to play and enjoy football without fear of discrimination. Say no to racism. For more information visit FIFA.com

Football breaks down barriers

P R E S I D E N T I A L N O T E

Best wishes, Issa Hayatou

The contenders for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or Award for the best player of 2015 and for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2015 Award were announced on 30 November on FIFA.com,

francefootball.fr and on FIFA’s YouTube channel in a show hosted by Kate Abdo (Sky Sports) with expert analysis from Nadine Kessler (German international and FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2014) and Edgar Davids (former Dutch international).

The nominees for the FIFA Ballon d’Or are, in alphabetical order: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/Real Madrid), Lionel Messi (Argentina/FC Barcelona) and Neymar (Brazil/FC Barcelona). Meanwhile, Carli Lloyd (USA/Houston Dash), Aya Miyama (Japan/Okayama Yunogo Belle), and Célia Šašić (Germany/1. FFC Frankfurt) are in the running for the women’s award.

The candidates for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football and FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football awards have also been announced. In alphabetical order, the con-tenders are: Pep Guardiola (Spain/FC Bayern Munich), Luis Enrique Martínez (Spain/FC Barcelona), Jorge Sampaoli (Argentina/Chilean national team) for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Foot-ball award; and Jill Ellis (USA/USA national team), Mark Sampson (Wales/English national team) and Norio Sasaki (Japan/Japanese national team) for the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football award.

In addition, the three nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award for the “most beautiful goal of the year” were announced. The three final goals are: Alessandro Florenzi (16.09.2015, AS Roma - FC Barcelona, UEFA Champions League), Wendell Lira (11.03.2015, Atletico-GO - Goianesia, Campeonato Goiano), Lionel Messi (30.05.2015, Athletic Bilbao - FC Barcelona, Copa del Rey).

The voting procedure for each of the awards was supervised and monitored by the independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Switzerland.

All of the awards will be presented at the FIFA Ballon d’Or award ceremony at the Kongresshaus in Zurich on 11 January 2016 during a televised show to be streamed live on FIFA.com and FIFA on YouTube. Å

tfw

F I F A B A L L O N D ’O R 2 015

The nominees are revealed

Find more information on http://www.fifa.com/ballondor

Once a year, in January, FIFA celebrates the achievements of the very best players and coaches at the FIFA Ballon d’Or ceremony. It is a chance for the world of football to pay tribute to those

individuals who give so much joy and inspiration to fans and young players.

This week, we announced the nominees for all of the main awards. Carli Lloyd, Aya Miyama and Célia Šašić are in the running for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year Award, having all played their part in the great success of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Canada.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are joined by Neymar this year in the battle for the FIFA Ballon d’Or.

The FIFA World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football will be decided between Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique Martínez and Jorge Sampaoli, while Jill Ellis, Mark Sampson and Norio Sasaki are com-peting for the equivalent award for women’s football.

We are fortunate to have such an array of talent playing and coaching football at the same time. It is a sign of the health and success of the global game. These champions set the standard for others. They can make the extraordinary look easy, but behind all those moments of sublime skill and tactical genius lies an important lesson for us all.

To reach those heights, it does not just take talent; it takes com-mitment, sacrifice and years of hard work. It also needs the right support in place to attract and develop talented players and coaches from a young age. FIFA and its member associations are working to provide this structure, and we are increasing our investment in football development to meet the challenge.

Come January, we will celebrate the very best in football. Let this celebration also be a reminder of our duty to the entire football community – from the elite level through to the grassroots, where the future stars of the game await.

Celebrating the best

FIFA


W O M E N ’ S F O O T B A L L

Hard-fought Katie Hay (l.) of Glasgow Girls and Isatou Jallow of Interior FC jostle for possession.

Strengthening the women’s game Scottish and Gambian players take part in FIFA’s ‘Live Your Goals’ campaign.

FIFA


Around 2,500 spectators gathered at the Serekunda East Mini Stadium to watch Gambia’s women’s national team play Scottish side Glasgow Girls. It was a his-toric match, not only because it was the Gambians’ first game in three years, but

because it was the first time they had ever played an opponent from somewhere other than west Africa.

Building bridgesThe sun shone fiercely in a clear sky and the stadium was filled with enthusiastic fans when the final whistle blew on a lively, gripping en-counter that ended 1-1, a result that could hard-ly have been more appropriate. The players hugged each other, providing confirmation of Gambia international Veronica Malack’s com-ment that, “football isn’t just a sport, it means family.”

The Glasgow Girls and their Gambian hosts formed close bonds over the course of the week-long trip the Scottish club made to the African nation in order to support the develop-ment of women’s football there. The visit was

organised by Martin Myers of Adventure Kicks, who runs several projects in Gambia and has bolstered ties between the Scottish and Gambian national associations. “We want to give women’s football the attention it deserves and inspire more girls to play the game,” he said. It is no coincidence that this year both the Scottish and Gambian FAs implemented FIFA’s ‘Live Your Goals’ campaign, thereby setting themselves the task of strengthening the im-age of women’s football, providing easier access

United for a successful future

to the game for women interested in playing it, and raising greater awareness of the sport. “Football builds bridges, it brings countries to-gether, fights poverty and broadens horizons,” said Sainey Sissohore, head of women’s football in Gambia and a ‘Live Your Goals’ ambassador.

The bridge between Scotland and Gambia is on a firm foundation. When the Glasgow Girls arrived they were warmly greeted with loud drums and music, and readily danced along to the catchy African rhythms. Not only did they become acquainted with the Gambian heat, they sampled a completely different cul-ture and saw monkeys and crocodiles during what was an unforgettable experience. The same can be said of the training session the Scottish players carried out at the Gilkock Football Academy. “Over 150 children took part,” said a delighted Jim Strathdee, president of Glasgow Girls FC.

Spotlight on football developmentFour friendly matches were organised during the trip, with the Glasgow Girls facing Red Scorpions FC, Jeshwang United FC, Interior FC and Gam-

bia’s women’s national team. The visitors record-ed one victory, one defeat and two draws, but the results were of secondary importance; instead, the focus was on football and the opportunities it brings. The Scottish and Gambian women also shared their experiences in a series of seminars. Adama Tamba, a clinical striker for both the Red Scorpions and the national side, was particular-ly impressed with the Glasgow Girls’ tactics. “They were so organised and disciplined,” she enthused. “It was sheer joy to play against them.”

Myers, meanwhile, was taken with the tal-ent and quality the Africans displayed: “All of the players were agile and technically strong.” That is no surprise, as the Gambians have set themselves lofty targets. “I will only hang up my boots when Gambia have taken part at a major tournament at senior level,” said Fatou Fatty, a member of the national team and captain of the Red Scorpions. She is convinced she will not have to wait much longer: “The week we spent with the Glasgow Girls strength-ened our morale and hopefully it’s motivated other girls to start playing football.” Fatty and her team-mates are eager to stay in the game once their playing days are over, either as coaches or with a role in the national associa-tion, in order to help football progress. “I want to pass on my knowledge to younger genera-tions,” said Tamba.

Myers also has plans for the future and is keen to continue offering British teams the chance to travel to far-flung countries and help increase the popularity of women’s football. “Eight thousand spectators watched the four games in Gambia,” he said. “We were over-whelmed with the attention women’s football and our visit received.” Such a response left a lasting impression on everyone involved and serves as a motivation for more. Å

Annette Braun

W O M E N ’ S F O O T B A L L

Glasgow Girls FC travelled to Gambia to promote women’s football and support its development there. Both the Scottish and Gambian national associations

have implemented FIFA’s ‘Live Your Goals’ campaign this year.

The week was shaped by high-quality games, enthusiastic

spectators and an animated exchanging of experiences. FIFA in Gambia

Within the scope of its Goal Programmes,

FIFA has supported Gambia with $1,699,763

USD since 2002. The financial aid was partly

put towards building a new football pitch in

the west African country, which has enabled

a greater number of women’s championships

to be organised and also guaranteed young-

sters more training time. Furthermore, a tech-

nical centre was established in Banjul, where

seminars are held to promote the develop-

ment of youth football.

FIFA


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The week ly column by our s t a f f wr iters

F R E E K I C K S P O T L I G H T O N

GENERAL INFORMATION

Country:Nigeria

FIFA Trigramme:NGA

Confederation:CAF

Continent:AfricaCapital:Abuja

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

Surface area:923,768 km²Highest point:

Chappal Wadi 2,419 mNeighbouring seas and oceans:

Atlantic Ocean

MEN’S FOOTBALLFIFA Ranking:

59thWorld Cup:

5 appearancesBest performance:

Round of 16, 1994, 1998, 2014

WOMEN’S FOOTBALLFIFA Ranking:

38thWorld Cup:

7 appearancesBest performance:

Quarterfinals, 1999

LATEST RESULTSMen’s:

Nigeria - Swaziland 2:0 17 November 2015

Women’s:Côte d’Ivoire - Nigeria 2:1

17 September 2015

FIFA INVESTMENTSSince 2003:

$ 4,610,000

The winner of the 2015 Ballon d’Or has been chosen. So who will lift the trophy this year? Your guess is as good as mine!

Although the Ballon d’Or is awarded by FIFA, even football’s governing body only finds out the winner’s identity at the last moment. But how can that be?

As we know, the winner and the second- and third-placed candidates are not selected by FIFA, but are elected by the captain and national coach of each of the 209 member associations, as well as by journalists invited to cast their vote by the magazine France Football. The vote closed on 20 November and 79.71 per cent of eligible associations took part. The world’s best player, however, has yet to be revealed.

The accountancy firm Pricewaterhouse-Coopers (PwC, Switzerland) is keeping the winner’s name under lock and key for now. The firm oversees and monitors the election process for all Ballon d’Or awards on behalf of FIFA and France Football.

Every year, speculation abounds as to the winner’s identity. Football fans the world over seem to delight in weighing up both credible and incredible factors in coming up with a name. Although everyone has a different pref-erence, only one person can lift the coveted trophy – and that person has already been chosen.

So who are the potential candidates for this year’s award? Cristiano Ronaldo is seek-ing to defend his crown, which he has won for two years in succession and three times overall.

Lionel Messi, who has also been nominat-ed again this year, has been named the world’s best player on four occasions. This is the fifth time in succession that both Ronaldo and Messi, the game’s two biggest stars, have appeared on the final shortlist.

They are joined this year by another huge name, albeit a newcomer. Could Brazil inter-national Neymar be ushering in a new era? Will he be nominated as often as his rivals in years to come? Will Neymar emerge trium-phant from his baptism of fire?

What all three players have in common is their incredible speed and impeccable reading of the game – not to mention the fact that they all play in Spain’s La Liga: Messi and Neymar ply their trade at Barcelona, while Ronaldo leads the line for Real Madrid.

The identity of the world’s best player will be revealed in Zurich on 11 January 2016. Å

Perikles Monioudis

Neymar’s baptism of fire

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England’s global star David Beckham in Manchester United kit with his son Brooklyn.

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Brooklyn Beckham is brought on as a substitute for his father David in a UNICEF charity match.

Old Trafford, Manchester, England

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N E T Z E R K N O W S ! Q U O T E S O F T H E W E E K

“I said already that the fourth position for me is not an impossible mission. If you ask me the title I would say impossible mission. Maybe Tom Cruise can do it.”

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho

“We just kicked an old ball around. There was no league. No goals. It wasn’t organ-ised. The field was wherever you made it.

It was just fun, and we played until the sun went down or the shooting started.”

Columbus Crew and Sierra Leone striker Kei Kamara in an interview about growing up and playing football amidst his country’s civil war

“I love a bargain. Who does not love a bargain? I don’t know many people

that don’t like a bargain.”Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hinting that

he might be going shopping in the January sales

“One thing Britain does give you is access to football 24-7, which is like a playground for people in terms of

their learning and development.”Canada coach John Herdman, one of five

preliminary nominees for the 2015 FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football

to hail from Great Britain

“Honestly, for me, football is deadly serious for 90 minutes and that’s it.

The whole circus that’s built up around it, the protagonists who are made out to be

this, that, or the other – it’s all crazy. Happily I’m smart enough to be able see that for what it is. So I tend to prefer a

more humorous approach to the subject.”Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp

“I have to be honest and say, though, that I really do like mine.”

Philippe Mexes on his strike that has been nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award

It is a question of interpretation. The label ‘centre forward’ arose for players who occupied a central attacking position. Players still take up these positions to-day, but the difference now is that they also drop deeper to take up a creative

midfield role. So in that sense, the classic centre forward or number nine does not exist anymore, at least not in top-level football.

To explain it using a different example: the task of a defender used to be to block the striker’s route to goal and then, once you had won the ball back, to give possession to a more technically gifted team-mate, someone who was able build up play from deep. Nowadays that is unthinkable. A defender must have the ability to play his part in building up from the back or even start an attack himself.

The same is true for a midfielder, and indeed for a centre forward. It used to be the case that a forward had one talent that he would fall back on. For example, a striker who was especially good in the air would, when his team was on the attack, position himself in

the penalty area in order to convert a cross that was meant for him. Today, a striker is expected not only to be able to shoot well but also to deliver the crosses himself, and to play that killer final pass that traditionally only the number ten would play.

One of the things that marks out a mod-ern coach is rotating his players in a consid-ered, calculated way, and allowing them the freedom to switch positions on the pitch. At the moment, one coach is demonstrating that more impressively than anyone: Pep Guar diola of Bayern Munich. Å

Is the traditional centre forward a dying breed?

A 23-year-old Gunter Netzer playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach

What have you a lways wanted to know about footbal l? A sk Gunter Net zer : feedback-theweek ly@ f i fa .orgim

ago


FIFA PARTNER

In Turning Point , personali t ies re f lec t on a decisive moment in their l ives .

T U R N I N G P O I N T

NameMandy IslackerDate and place of birth8 August 1988, Essen, GermanyPositionStrikerClubs2004-2006 FCR Duisburg2006-2007 SG Essen Schonebeck2007-2010 Bayern Munich2010-2013 FCR Duisburg2013-2014 BV CloppenburgSince 2014 1. FFC FrankfurtMajor honoursChampions League winner 2015German championship runner-up 2009German national team2 caps, 2 goals

I’ll never forget 22 October 2015, the day I made my international debut for Germany. I hadn’t expected to be in the starting line-up for the European Championship quali-fier against Russia, which we won 2-0. I was surprised to be starting the game but at the

same time I was determined to give it everything I had. I scored the opening goal as early as the eighth minute. Leonie Maier crossed the ball and after my effort hit the crossbar, Sara Dabritz followed it up but could only hit the post with her header. I pounced on the rebound and put the ball in the net for my first international goal.

I got my second for Germany against Tur-key three days later. Again it was the first goal of the game, and this time I scored in the sixth minute. I felt like I was in seventh heaven. At 27, I’d stopped believing I’d play for the senior national team. The last time I’d represented Germany was at U-17 level. It was my goals for 1. FFC Frankfurt that had made an impact and put me in contention again. Scoring the winner against Paris Saint-Germain to make it 2-1 in the Champions League final helped me and strengthened many people’s belief that I’m a player who can score decisive goals.

That said, I dislike those kinds of labels as much as I do being in the spotlight. For me the important thing is to continue to do my best in training in order to be considered for the next game. I find that attitude very helpful because it fosters personal ambition without building

up an excessive amount of pressure. It is pre-cisely that approach that brought me back into the Germany set-up a good ten years after my last match, and made a dream come true for me and my family. My father Frank played profes-sionally in the Bundesliga with VfL Bochum and he passed on the football gene to me. He initially thought I’d lose interest in playing if I fell on a hard pitch, but he was wrong. I’ve long since made more Bundesliga appearances than he did. My grandfather Franz also loved the game. He earned an international cap in 1954 under Sepp Herberger and would no doubt be very proud of me. He lifted the DFB Cup with Rot-Weis Essen in 1953 and also won the Ger-man league title in 1955. I haven’t achieved that yet, but I’m working on it. Å

Mandy Islacker was speaking to Rainer Hennies

Mandy Islacker made her debut in Germany’s women’s national team at the age of 27, and crowned her maiden outing with a first international goal.

“A dream came true for me”

Get

ty Im

ages


1 Belgium 0 1494

2 Argentina 1 1455

3 Spain 3 1370

4 Germany -2 1347

5 Chile 0 1273

6 Brazil 2 1251

7 Portugal -3 1219

8 Colombia -1 1211

9 England 0 1106

10 Austria 0 1091

11 Uruguay 1 1074

12 Switzerland -1 1050

13 Ecuador 8 1040

14 Netherlands 2 994

15 Italy -2 991

16 Romania -2 980

17 Wales -2 974

18 Croatia 1 958

19 Côte d’Ivoire 3 950

20 Hungary 13 945

21 Turkey -3 933

22 Bosnia and Herzegovina -2 898

22 Mexico 2 898

24 Russia -1 895

25 France -1 868

26 Slovakia 1 860

26 Czech Republic -9 860

28 Algeria -2 845

29 Ukraine -1 842

30 Northern Ireland -1 825

31 Republic of Ireland 11 810

32 USA 1 784

33 Ghana -3 778

34 Poland 4 776

35 Sweden 10 771

36 Iceland -5 761

37 Costa Rica 3 759

38 Albania -2 746

39 Cape Verde Islands -7 745

40 Tunisia 1 711

41 Greece -4 706

42 Denmark -7 685

43 Finland 13 663

44 Senegal -5 661

45 Iran -2 653

46 Paraguay 1 647

47 Peru 10 644

48 Congo 4 638

49 Trinidad and Tobago 5 628

50 Guinea 3 621

51 Korea Republic -3 617

52 Scotland -8 609

53 Japan -3 607

54 Norway -8 591

54 Jamaica 7 591

56 Serbia -7 590

57 Australia 3 585

57 Egypt 0 585

59 Cameroon -8 583

60 Congo DR -5 580

61 Slovenia 3 565

62 Mali 1 552

63 Uganda 5 550

64 Panama 1 544

65 United Arab Emirates 2 543

66 Nigeria -7 541

67 Belarus 3 514

68 Bolivia 9 500

69 Israel -8 498

69 Equatorial Guinea 0 498

71 Bulgaria -5 494

72 South Africa 3 487

73 Zambia -2 481

74 Uzbekistan -3 470

75 Morocco 4 469

76 Gabon -3 468

77 Haiti -4 467

78 Benin 25 461

79 Cyprus -3 441

80 Saudi Arabia 0 432

81 Libya 32 427

82 Antigua and Barbuda -2 409

83 Venezuela 0 408

84 China PR 0 405

85 Montenegro -7 403

86 Qatar -1 401

87 Jordan -5 399

88 Canada 14 388

89 Burkina Faso 4 381

89 Iraq -2 381

91 Cuba 17 377

92 Nicaragua 8 370

93 Estonia -3 369

94 Guatemala -3 368

95 Botswana 10 364

96 Togo -8 363

97 Faroe Islands -8 357

98 Kenya 27 345

99 El Salvador -5 344

100 Niger 5 339

101 Rwanda -5 338

101 Latvia -2 338

101 Honduras -6 338

104 Oman -12 333

105 Korea DPR 15 330

105 Angola -7 330

107 Liberia -21 329

108 Kyrgyzstan 16 324

109 Malawi -12 322

110 Zimbabwe -1 318

111 Mozambique 14 317

112 Burundi -5 307

113 Central African Republic -3 302

114 Chad 22 301

115 Aruba -3 298

116 Mauritania -12 297

117 Azerbaijan -2 296

118 Sierra Leone 3 295

119 Turkmenistan 2 294

120 Ethiopia -6 293

121 St Kitts and Nevis -20 289

122 Georgia -11 286

123 Armenia 4 285

124 Bahrain -9 278

125 Syria 7 276

126 Lithuania -3 274

127 Belize -10 273

128 Madagascar -10 272

129 Kazakhstan 2 266

129 Namibia -11 266

131 Swaziland -1 265

132 Tanzania 3 264

133 Thailand 11 263

134 Sudan -6 259

134 Palestine 4 259

136 FYR Macedonia 3 257

137 Hong Kong 8 252

138 South Sudan -4 246

139 Kuwait -6 239

139 Philippines -2 239

139 Lebanon 1 239

142 Luxembourg 4 237

143 St Vincent and the Grenadines -14 221

144 St Lucia -1 216

145 Barbados -3 214

146 Guinea-Bissau -5 207

147 Vietnam 0 200

148 Tajikistan 12 196

149 Singapore 3 195

150 Afghanistan 6 194

151 Curaçao -1 192

151 New Zealand 8 192

153 Lesotho -6 185

154 Dominican Republic -5 180

155 Moldova -1 172

156 São Tomé e Príncipe 1 170

157 Guam -2 162

158 Myanmar 3 155

159 Bermuda -8 154

160 Maldives 6 150

161 Guyana -9 144

162 Malta -4 143

M E N ’ S W O R L D R A N K I N G

Rank Team +/- Points

163 Grenada 4 139

164 Gambia 4 135

164 Liechtenstein -1 135

166 India 6 132

167 American Samoa -2 128

167 Cook Islands 2 128

167 Samoa -3 128

170 Malaysia 1 127

170 Timor-Leste -8 127

172 Comoros 5 120

172 Puerto Rico -2 120

174 Yemen 5 119

174 Mauritius -1 119

176 Dominica -1 107

177 US Virgin Islands 1 88

177 Laos -1 88

179 Indonesia -5 84

180 Cambodia 3 83

181 New Caledonia -1 80

182 Bangladesh -2 78

182 Chinese Taipei 5 78

184 Pakistan 1 76

185 Brunei Darussalam 1 74

186 Fiji 4 68

187 Montserrat 1 67

188 Bhutan -8 64

189 Seychelles 0 56

189 Tahiti 2 56

191 Suriname -7 55

192 Nepal 0 49

193 Vanuatu 8 47

194 Sri Lanka 0 45

195 Macau 0 44

196 Cayman Islands -3 43

197 Turks and Caicos Islands 0 33

198 San Marino -2 28

199 British Virgin Islands -1 27

200 Solomon Islands -1 26

201 Mongolia 2 6

201 Andorra 4 6

203 Papua New Guinea 3 4

204 Anguilla 3 0

204 Bahamas 3 0

204 Djibouti 3 0

204 Eritrea -2 0

204 Somalia -1 0

204 Tonga -4 0

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/index.html

Rank Team +/- Points Rank Team +/- Points Rank Team +/- Points

LeaderMoves into top tenMoves out of top tenMatches played in totalMost matches playedBiggest move by pointsBiggest move by ranksBiggest drop by pointsBiggest drop by ranks

Belgium (unchanged)nonenone137Congo DR, Zambia, Angola, Namibia (4 matches each)Hungary (up 186 points)Libya (up 32 ranks)Portugal (down 145 points)Liberia (down 21 ranks)

Last updated:3 December 2015


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8 1 2 6 3

7 9 4 2

5 1 7

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6 7 1 8 9

9 1 4 2 3

7 1 9 2 4

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The objective of Sudoku is to fill a 9x9 grid with digits so that each of the numbers from 1 to 9 appears exactly once in each column, row and 3x3 sub-grid.

Published weekly by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)

PublisherFIFA, FIFA-Strasse 20, PO box, CH-8044 Zurich

Phone +41-(0)43-222 7777, Fax +41-(0)43-222 7878

Acting PresidentIssa Hayatou

Acting Secretary GeneralMarkus Kattner

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Chief EditorPerikles Monioudis

Staff WritersAlan Schweingruber (Deputy Editor),

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Art DirectionCatharina Clajus

Picture EditorPeggy Knotz, Christiane Ludena (on behalf of 13 Photo)

LayoutRichie Kroenert (Lead), Tobias Benz, Susanne Egli

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ContributorsRonald Dueker, Matt Falloon, Luigi Garlando, Sven Goldmann,

Andreas Jaros, Jordi Punti, David Winner, Roland Zorn

Contributors to this IssueRainer Hennies, Julien Sebbah, Thananuwat Srirasant,

Reto Thurnherr

Editorial AssistantAlissa Rosskopf

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ISSUE 48/2015, 4 DECEMBER 2015 ENGLISH EDITION10 – 20 December 2015, Japan FIFA Futsal World Cup...

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