07 May 2012

23 Nations represented in the Mundialito

Besides Brazil (34), Argentina (10), Russia (9) and Mexico (8) are the countries with more players involved

The Mundialito de Clubes Beach Soccer is a real Worldwide festival, with the best players in the world hitting the sand of the Repressa de Guarapiranga in just 5 days. Being Beach Soccer such a global spectacle, it is no surprise seeing these stars come from many different countries, thus confirming the universal approach of our sport. With 23 Nations represented, the excitement showdown at the Arena in São Paulo is to be felt all across the globe.

Necessarily, due to their five teams involved, and due to being Beach Soccer’s traditional birthplace, Brazil is the country with a bigger representation: 34 players with Brazilian nationality will take part of the event, with at least one of them in each of the 12 participating clubs. After the hosts, Argentina occupies the second place in the ranking, with ten players involved. Besides the five albiceleste internationals backboning Boca Juniors, other five will be split into four different Brazilain clubs: Vasco da Gama, Corinthians, Santos and Sao Paulo. Something similar happens with the World Champions. Russia, with one team in the competition (Lokomotiv Moscow) banking on five players, four more of them will bring their huge competitiveness to FC Barcelona (recruiting three) and Corinthians.

Mexico comes in the fourth place, and remarkably enough in this case, with no Mexican club in the competition’s grid. Despite that, up to seven clubs have wanted to have at least one of the spirited Azteca footballers on their squad, even with Seattle Sounders recruiting two of them. That makes eight of the Ramon Raya’s Nationally coached lads flying to São Paulo, something similar to the Uruguayan case, with no team involved, but six of their players having their say in the event in four different clubs.

Portugal, Italy and UAE come straight after, with seven players representing each country, and then we jump to Spain and Switzerland, with five players, and the USA, with four. Below them, we have Ukraine, El Salvador, Chile, Japan and Oman, providing the II Mundialito with two players, and Senegal, Lithuania, Ecuador, France, Venezuela, Paraguay and Germany, with one representative by the Guarapiranga dam.