Kevin Ramirez has become something of a globetrotter since embarking on his career as a professional futsal player, having turned out for clubs in Spain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, England, India and Czech Republic. When FIFA caught up with him for an interview, the France captain was about to fly off to Costa Rica \u2013 not to enjoy the beaches and its famously relaxed way of life, or watch the quetzals that inhabit its lush, green valleys, but to play in a couple of important friendlies. Those games, against Costa Rica and Venezuela, who happen to be in France\u2019s group at the FIFA Futsal World Cup Uzbekistan 2024\u2122, both ended in 3-3 draws.<\/p>\n
Those two results took Les Bleus unbeaten run to 13 matches, with confidence levels having risen high since they secured a place at Uzbekistan 2024 with a 7-1 defeat of Slovakia on 14 December 2023 \u2013 a day Ramirez is not about to forget.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had tears in my eyes that night,\u201d said the man who is about to turn 37. \u201cI\u2019m one of the oldest players on the team and I went back over everything we\u2019ve been through in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve really come a long way and we\u2019ve had to fight hard. I thought of Michel Muffat-Joly, our old team manager, who\u2019s no longer with us. I also thought about former coach Pierre Jacky and my family, who\u2019ve supported me throughout my 18-year career.\u201d<\/p>\n
That career has seen him travel the world and become the man and the player he is today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve experienced different cultures, met some amazing people, and made and stayed friends with people everywhere,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cI\u2019ve been exposed to different types of futsal, which has really helped me read the game better and with my anticipation, because I\u2019m not the most athletic of players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been very lucky to have had this career and it\u2019s been very rewarding. When you travel because of the sport you play or just in life even, you learn things about yourself. I hope that continues in Uzbekistan and that we can do something big there.\u201d<\/p>\n
As they prepare for the World Cup, France are aiming to be ambitious, stick together and remember where they have come from.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be going into the tournament with our feet firmly on the ground, very much aware of our strengths and weaknesses,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cWe are new boys after all.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to remember that our group contains Iran, one of the strongest futsal nations in the world, and Venezuela, who finished third at the Copa America. Even so, and though we have less experience than them, we know we can beat anyone and we\u2019ll be doing all we can to be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
France have a busy schedule ahead of their opening match on 16 September, against a Guatemala side playing at their sixth World Cup. After a well-deserved summer break, the team will have a get-together at Clairefontaine in early August, and play their final warm-up game on 31 August at the CO\u2019Met Arena in Orleans, where they will take on 2016 world champions Argentina.<\/p>\n
Then comes the trip to Uzbekistan, with the team stopping off in Dubai for a few days along the way. Those preparations will give the French a chance to perfect their game and get in the right physical and mental shape for the rigours that lie ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a very athletic side,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cPhysically, we\u2019ve turned the corner and we\u2019re a very tough team to play against. We make sure our opponents know that we\u2019re there and we don\u2019t give them time to think.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the tournament, Ramirez will join his new club, Sporting Paris, having signed for them in March to be closer to his family and wife, who did not travel to Saudi Arabia in 2023 because of work commitments. An admirer of the likes of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, the former Lazio player is not thinking about retirement just yet: \u201cI feel great physically, so I\u2019m going to keep on playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI\u2019ve taken all my coaching badges anyway because I want to give back to futsal what it\u2019s given me. I\u2019m in love with the game. No sport has ever given me as much pleasure because you\u2019re always involved in the game. You have to think fast. You\u2019re either on the ball or getting into space, trying to give your team-mates an option. You\u2019re always on the move and that\u2019s what I really love about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kevin Ramirez has become something of a globetrotter since embarking on his career as a professional futsal player, having turned out for clubs in Spain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, England, India and Czech Republic. When FIFA caught up with him for an interview, the France captain was about to fly off to Costa Rica \u2013 not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":994172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-994165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=994165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/994172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=994165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=994165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=994165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}