Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Islamic Republic of Iran's Mohammad Reza Heidarian is a futsal legend who continues to be part of the game despite having retired nine years ago.
Heidarian is extremely satisfied with the progress of the game in Asia and the-AFC.com sat down with the 43-year-old, the 2004 Asian Futsal Championship MVP winner, as he shared his thoughts.
Q: How has futsal progressed in Asia since your retirement?
A: Futsal in Asia has progressed a lot since I retired. I think this impressive progress came from the AFC's futsal development programmes and each MAs efforts. You can see Vietnam for example. They managed to qualify for the World Cup and even advanced from the group stage there.
Q: What more can Asian teams do to compete with the world's best?
A: First of all, we should have strong and well organised domestic leagues.
Secondly, you should play futsal developed countries like Brazil or other power houses in Europe as many times as you can.
You will be able to gauge where you stand, and at the same time, you will improve from the experience.
Lastly, you have to exchange and share knowledge with strong teams in Asia and even from outside Asia.
https://www.the-afc.com/en/more/photo/iran-futsal_jpg.html
