Senior Joel Vieira has made a name for himself playing futsal, the indoor version of soccer. After travelling to Spain three times to play, Vieira won numerous awards including MVP Ambassador 2018 Puyol Recognition, and 2019 First Top 11 Player to earn an FC Barcelona coaching training award. He also captained the US top 11 national team.

In futsal there are five players per team, 20-minute halves, and they use a ball that doesn’t bounce as much as a regular soccer ball. Since futsal is only played during the winter in the United States, Vieira made his own team to play year-round. At the age of ten he created Alianza Futsal, and the team has won over 15 tournaments since.

In 2016, after his team won at the US National Futsal Tournament in California, Vieira was chosen by USA Futsal as one of the best futsal players in the United States. He was invited to travel to Spain for ten days to train with FC Barcelona that same year.

“It was a great experience playing with professionals,” Vieira said. “I learned a lot and brought elements of the training I got there to the team I have here.”

Vieira was asked to travel to Spain again last year to train with FC Barcelona, but this time, United Futsal and FC Barcelona hosted a tournament where the top 11 players from the United States could play against the top 11 players from Brazil, Spain, and Australia. From that trip, Vieira’s most memorable moment was during the final game against Brazil, when he scored the winning goal.

“I was calm, but inside I was so happy and excited because there was one minute left on the clock, so I already knew we won,” Vieira said.

Even after Vieira had traveled to Spain twice to play with FC Barcelona, he went for a third year in a row because he received a scholarship to coach futsal.

In the future, Vieira says he would like to keep playing futsal for the US and soon on the United States National Futsal Team. He also mentions that he will be going back to Spain twice a year “to keep learning and playing with FC Barcelona.” He was also invited to go to Australia and play in the professional league, but what he would love most would be to play for the USA professional league and national team.

“I would like the sport to be known all over USA, and I will be an ambassador that talks to everyone about the sport of futsal,” Vieira said.