New Zealand fixo Miroslav Malivuk, 41, is the oldest player at Uzbekistan 2024 by some distance. He is followed by two 38-year-olds: Kazakhstan goalkeeper Leo Higuita and Argentina defender Pablo Taborda. Malivuk emulates the likes of Japanese Kazu Miura (45 in 2012), Brazilian Falcao (39 in 2016) and Hungarian Libor Gercak (46 in 2021) in being the oldest player at a FIFA Futsal World Cup.

A staggering 39 players – ۱۱٫۶ per cent of the total – are based in Spain at club level. They include all 14 members of Spain’s squad, nine from Argentina, seven from Brazil, and players from Cuba, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Thailand and Ukraine. IR Iran and Portugal come next on 18 and 15 respectively. Guatemala, Iran, Spain, Uzbekistan are the only squads with every player based in their homeland.

Sixteen FIFA Futsal World Cup-winning players are at Uzbekistan 2024. Guitta triumphed with Brazil at Thailand 2012, before Cristian Borruto, Alan Brandi, Nico Sarmiento, Pablo Taborda and Kiki Vaporaki helped Argentina lift the trophy at Colombia 2016. Tiago Brito, Fabio Cecilio, Andre Coelho, Bruno Coelho, Erick, Afonso Jesus, Joao Matos, Tomas Paco, Pany Varela and Zicky were part of the Portugal squad that conquered Lithuania 2021. Jorge Braz masterminded that success and is the only champion coach at this competition.

Argentina’s Cristian Borruto and Ali Hassanzadeh of IR Iran are the Uzbekistan 2024 players with the most FIFA Futsal World Cup goals to their name (13 apiece). They are followed by Thai pair Suphawut Thueanklang (12) and Jirawat Sornwichian (10), Argentinian Alan Brandi (9), Brazilian Ferrao (9) and Spaniard Sergio Lozano (9).

Eight teenagers were selected and, incredibly, four are from Afghanistan: Mehran Gholami,
Bahman Gorgej, Ali Jafari and Mohammad Moradi. The others are Fazliddin Botirov (Uzbekistan), Dyllan Hernandez and Berni Llanes (both Cuba), and Mika Spigt (Netherlands). Gholami is the youngest and will be the only 18-year-old when the tournament kicks off.

Cristian Borruto and Ali Hassanzadeh will equal the great Falcao’s record of going to five FIFA Futsal World Cups. The Argentina pivot and the Iran winger went to their first 16 years ago.

Four of the 24 coaches played in the FIFA Futsal World Cup: Carlos Chilavert (Paraguay), Oleksandr Kosenko (Ukraine), Matias Lucuix (Argentina) and Vahid Shamsaee (Iran). Shamsaee scored 10 goals in 12 appearances across three editions, while Chilavert, Kosenko and Lucuix appeared in two. The Paraguayan and the Argentinian competed against one another in a 3-3 draw at Brazil 2008, with Lucuix on target.

New Zealand captain Dylan Manickum is heading to his second FIFA tournament. The 32-year-old represented Auckland City in the last two editions of the FIFA Club World Cup™, competing against Fabinho, N’Golo Kante and Karim Benzema at Saudi Arabia 2023. Panama winger Alfonso Maquensi, who is set for his second FIFA Futsal World Cup, has already participated in another FIFA event. The MVP at the recent Concacaf Futsal Championship competed against the likes of Alan, Belchior, Jordan, Madjer and the Martins twins at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™ in 2017.

Croatia pivot Antonio Sekulic is, at 1.96 metres, the tallest player at Uzbekistan 2024. Saimond Francia, who dwarves his own brother and fellow Venezuela defender Milton Francia by 15 centimetres, is second at 1.94m. They are followed by Croatia’s Luka Peric (1.93), Azat Valiullin of Kazakhstan (1.92), Portugal’s Edu (1.91), Franco Jelovcic of Croatia (1.91) and Panama’s Jose Yearwood (1.91).