In 1930 there were two great milestones in the world of football: the first Men's Soccer World Cup and the creation of futsal. Both events took place in South America, more precisely in Uruguay.
It was in this country, euphoric for hosting the first Football World Cup, that the physical education teacher Juan Carlos Ceriani had the idea of creating a variant of football eleven-a-side so that everyone could practice the sport in any space. Inspired by handball and also taking regulatory aspects of water polo, he laid the foundations of futsal.
This sport, which is in full swing in Argentina and is not yet so well known, finds in Camila Costa Rustom, Business Process Solutions -BPS- Manager, a great coach and trainer of young athletes.
Camila trains boys between the ages of 13 and 17 at the Club Social y Deportivo Merlo. The team compites in the First Division "C" Championship of the Argentine Football Association (AFA). "I'm very happy. The 4° category is the second one in Deportivo Merlo in number of points, so we are doing well and with a fairly new group”, says Camila.
Many people interested in football come to the sport when they are children due to the influence of family or friends and Camila is no exception. She spent her childhood surrounded by boys. So, instead of being bored, she joined all the football games that she was invited to. But it wasn't until she was 24 that she decided to compete. “I like football, so I looked for a club near my house and I played until last year in the local league and in 2021 we were champions. I never got to play in an AFA afiliated team”.
Her own coach noticed that Camila had a special capacity to read and analyze the game and told her about futsal. The game captivated her completely and Camila decided to split her time between numbers and the ball.
“As time went by, I started to feel something different for futsal. I was never the most skillful player with my feet, but I was very strategic when it came to playing. That made me ask myself, 'what if I start coaching?' That's why I decided to study to become a futsal coach at the AFA's school and in December of this year I will graduate”, Camila highlights.
Like every star, her debut did not take long to come. Despite not having yet finished the course, at the end of 2022 she was offered to be the coach of the 4th and 5th division of men's futsal team at Deportivo Merlo. Making her way based on good results, Camila earned the respect of her 40 players and the entire Institution, which placed in her the risponsability of training future first division players. "I have a couple of guys who play very well and in some games they have already gone on loan to play with the Reserve", she says proudly.
As in her work, planning plays a very important role in Camila's life. Her work at Grant Thornton, coaching studies and training sessions at the Club are perfectly coordinated to give the best of herself in each activity. The flexibility and possibility of remote work provided by Grant Thornton are key to make this work.
“I work every day until 6:00 p.m. The coaching course begins on Mondays at 6:00 p.m. and although I usually do not have to prepare for exams like when I did my Accounting Degree at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, it does require a lot of time to analyze videos of plays, teams, and games. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the days that I have training, so I try to stop working at 6 o'clock, but if I can, I leave a few minutes before. This way I avoid traffic and I can be at the club at 7:00 p.m.“, says Camila, “If I had to go to the office every day, I wouldn't get to the course or the club on time to start training. Those are the advantages of online work that the pandemic left us with”.
The FIFA Women's Soccer World Cup Australia – New Zealand begins on July 20. Argentina is in Group G with Sweden, South Africa and Italy and makes its debut against the latter on July 24 at 3am Argentine time.
Like futsal, women's eleven-a-side football is still growing. “In this type of sports, the men's team is always one step ahead”, Camila explains. “Currently, in Argentina, the sport is not as professionalized as it is for men. Women's soccer began to become professional and to make the first proffesionals contracts with players 3 years ago”.
This disparity in the situation between men's and women's sports is reflected in the record of each National Team. While the men's team has already won 3 World Cups; the women's team participated in 3 editions and has not yet achieved a World Cup victory. In the Cups played in United States 2003 and China 2007, Argentina was defeated in the six matches played, scoring just one goal in each tournament.
In 2019, boosted by the announcement of professionalization, the National Team drew 0-0 against Japan and 3-3 against Scotland. They lost the match against England by 1-0. This year, the players travel to Oceania with the hope of obtaining their first win in the tournament, and with the encouragement of an entire country that recently saw their men's team champion and now wants to support the women.
With empathy, respect for the process that local women's soccer is going through and, above all, with passion, we invite you to spur on and accompany the growth of the discipline and its path through the World Cup.