Saturday sees the start of the ninth FIFA Futsal World Cup in Colombia. Italy has qualified for seven of the previous eight tournaments and finished with the Bronze medal in Thailand four-years ago.
 

The coach, Roberto Menichelli has been in charge of his country’s national Futsal team for seven years and takes one of the most experienced squads to the finals. The two undoubted stars of the side are goalkeeper Stefano Mammarella and Rodolfo Fortino, the former took the Adidas Golden Glove award in Thailand for best keeper, the latter taking the Adidas Silver Boot in the same tournament. Other names for fans to watch out for are captain Gabriel Lima, Sergio Romano and Alessandro Patias.  

Italy are one of the major forces in the game despite never having won the top prize. Their Futsal World Cup record is only bettered in Europe by two-time champions Spain. It took a while for the Azzurri to find their feet in the competition however; they never troubled the latter stages in any of the first three tournaments and failed to qualify for Guatemala in 2000. That failure was the catalyst for the country’s renaissance at this level and the last three tournaments has seen them achieve at least a podium finish. Menichelli’s side will start as one of the pre-tournament favourites in Colombia.  

#FIFAFutsal2016: segui gli #Azzurri!@azzurri @FIFA.com @DivCalcio5 #Futsal #Calcio5 #VivoAzzurro pic.twitter.com/I8PZOgJdn4

— Nazionale Italiana (@Vivo_Azzurro) 8 settembre 2016

The Futsal World Cup in Colombia runs from 10 September to 1 October

Steve Mitchell @barafundler
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Photograph courtesy of Getty Images