With his explosive style of play, primarily featuring on the right wing, Arthur can easily take over the highlight reels of any given match. He has maintained this trend at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024™.

Let’s look back at Brazil’s second match of the group stage, when they faced Croatia. Eight minutes into the second half, he picked up the ball out wide – still in his own half – and flew past Franco Jelovcic. He then nutmegged Niko Vukmir on the halfway line before continuing on his run towards the goal of Zoran Primic. He went on to drop goalkeeper to the floor, dribble around him, and slot home an extraordinary solo effort. All of this happened within the space of five seconds.

It is exactly the kind of goal to do the rounds on social media. But Arthur, perhaps thinking about the mentality that has taken Brazil to their first final in 12 years, might be more inclined to prefer another clip. It came in the tense affair between Brazil and Morocco in the quarter-finals.

Brazil were 3-1 ahead going into the dying minutes when Morocco were putting them under immense pressure, using a flying goalkeeper to create a numerical overload. Soufian Charraoui found some space to unleash a strike that seemed destined for the bottom corner. Arthur, however, was in the area and had the reflexes and flexibility to make a goal-saving block. The Uberlandia native proceeded to celebrate ferociously.

Arthur is one of Brazil’s eight remaining players from the 2021 campaign. Brazil were knocked out in the semi-finals of that tournament by Argentina, with whom they will now collide for the trophy.

You have spoken a lot about how the goal was to come to Uzbekistan and lift the trophy. How are those expectations looking now?
Arthur: We always have high expectations. Our goal here has been to get to the World Cup final. We knew that we were good enough, but at the same time we knew that it was not going to be easy. The entire squad deserves this, it’s been our mission from the start. Now we have to focus on this game against our big rivals. The whole world will be watching. We are confident. We will give it everything we have to take that trophy back to Brazil.

Beyond the results, how do you assess Brazil’s performances so far?
The togetherness of the group has been a big factor in our results. Our defence has also been fantastic. We’ve only conceded four times so far, and that is a reflection on us as a team. Our strong foundations at the back allow our attack to thrive. We knew that it was not going to be easy, so we had to put everything into it. Many of us have had to rein in our usual individual game for the benefit of the group. I think that shows and it is why we are still here.

You played at your first World Cup three years ago, but the preparation was hampered by COVID. How does it feel to be back at a tournament like this?
That first World Cup came at a very tough time. But I also think that I learned from my mistakes at that tournament. It was my first experience of a tournament like that and, personally, I reflected on that a lot. I understood that I had to prepare better. I worked extremely hard at my club and managed to make the final squad. I was better prepared this time round, more mature about what I needed to do to help Brazil get to the final.

Did you go back and re-watch that semi-final defeat to Argentina? Has that game served as an example for anything?
To be honest, I have not watched that game back a lot. It was a really tough blow. I thought we played really well on the day, we had a lot of chances. I cannot explained what happened, I think it just was not meant to be. That was a tough blow, but it served as a lesson to us. We knew that we had to come back stronger. Our cycle over these three years has been great, the guys have really matured. We have played Argentina on other occasions, like at the Copa America, and we felt really united then.

We wanted to talk to you about two pivotal pieces of play from this tournament: your sensational goal against Croatia and goal-saving block against Morocco…
The goal was clearly an incredible goal, but it is great that the block against Morocco has also received so much attention. It is that idea of sacrificing a bit of your individual game to do what is best for the team. It shows that there is more to the game than just the individual, scoring goals – there is a lot more to it than that. You have to always be prepared because those things can always happen, like when you are playing against a flying goalkeeper. I have to help the team to avoid conceding and to manage the space so that we can get through that. It is a little bit of both.

We have seen you flying down the right wing a lot during this tournament. In that limited space out wide, you still manage to get past different opponents and through different teams. What is your secret?
Sometimes it all happens so quickly, like that play [against Croatia], so you just have to improvise. You have to be one step ahead of the defender. Thankfully it came off then and I managed to dribble past players and then keep my head to dribble around the goalkeeper and score. The Brazilian winger is capable of improvising and making very quick decisions, and that is vital in decisive moments.