Marcin Oleksy, of the first Puskas Award to an amputee footballer at the Paris Games

This sport could be shown on the next Olympic date, waiting for its incorporation into the official program

The name of Marcin Oleksy has been recorded in the history of football. On February 27, the Pole became the first amputee footballer to receive the Puskas Award, awarded by popular vote to the best goal scored in a calendar year from a list previously selected by FIFA. In 2010, when he was 23 years old, he suffered an accident that caused him to lose his left leg and left his right leg in very bad shape.. In 2019, however, he returned to playing soccer, a sport in which he started out as a goalkeeper, which he dreamed of being able to practice with his son and which, now, has earned him this historic recognition.

The award has put amputee soccer on the front lines of the media and, according to Alberto Martínez Vassallo, national coordinator of this sport for the Spanish Federation of Sports for People with Physical Disabilities, it can mark a before and after.

The award puts this sport in its place. He is not new, he is already his age, but when I arrived here, four years ago, only 20 or 22 countries practiced it. Now we are 50. FIFA has done a phenomenal act with this award for Marcin. From now on I think that every year that it is celebrated The Best we will see a disabled athlete as a candidate in one of the categories, he assures.

From his point of view, it would not be anything extraordinary if the televisions decided to broadcast a game soon. However, its presence, both in Spain and in other European countries, is not yet widespread.

League Championship

In Spain we only have five clubs, although it is also true that we are on a par with other European countries. Now, we are talking with Portugal, so that they also have some equipment and thus be able to play with them. Let’s see if we can pull it off, points out the national amputee football coordinator, who points out that this year a league championship between Spanish clubs will be played for the first time. The great objective, however, getting closer and closer, is to enter the Paralympic program.

We have a commission that is working on it. You have to go slowly. For the moment, from what we have discussed with the members of the International Paralympic Committee, it could enter the program in 2032. However, since next year the Games will be held in France, we are trying to get them to press from there in some way. to its Paralympic committee to make it an exhibition sport in Paris. If that happened, it could lead many more people to practice it, says Martínez Vassallo.

At the moment, the Spanish team already accumulates several experiences. In the 2018 World Cup we were eighth and in September last year we were second in the European Cup., but the following World Cup was a disaster. That’s why we decided to redo all the technical equipment. Now everything is back on track and we plan to play a friendly in France on March 18, explains the coordinator of a sport that can be played in a five- or seven-player mode, although the latter is competed internationally. .

There is no offside, field footballers use crutches and their most useful leg, while goalkeepers, who must have some amputation or impediment in the upper limbs, have to hit the body with the least useful leg, hide it under the shirt and, furthermore, they cannot leave their area.