An engineering student from Mysuru, who had a successful stint as a member of the Indian Futsal team, has found a place to play for one of the leading Italian Futsal leagues.
Yashwanth Kumar, who is in the final year of mechanical engineering at a city college, had been selected in the Italian Serie B National Championships for the 2020 season. He will be playing for Rhibo Fossano team.
The 21-year-old youngster claimed that he had rubbed shoulders with legendary international football players while playing in the Premier Futsal League and their advice had helped him to improve his skills as the goalkeeper.
Kumar is training hard to make it big in the Italian season. “I am being trained at a local Futsal circuit here. My passion is to do extremely well in the sport and find a place in top-notch Serie A league,” says the player, whose goalkeeping skills led him into the popular league which has a huge fan following.
Kumar was picked when he had been to Italy to play for a couple of matches after trials early this year.
Ironically, Kumar had never thought of making a name in Futsal though he was a passionate footballer since childhood. “I was among the 40 players out of 1,200 to get selected for the Premier Futsal League in India and was later selected by the Kerala Futsal Team,” he recalled.
On seeing his performance in the league matches, the Indian selectors picked him for the national team two years ago. He played for the team in Barcelona and later in Sri Lanka.
Kumar also wants to pursue his Masters in Italy to balance his academic goals with Futsal passion.
“I am preparing for admission into an Italian university for the MS. I may have to stay there for two years as per my contract and I want to make use of my stay since the league matches are played during the weekends.”
A resident of N.R. Mohalla, Kumar says Futsal was catching up in Mysuru like elsewhere in the country and many youth were taking up the sport.
