Futsal club and current 3 time consecutive club Champions Sydney Magic PCYC continue to make in roads in establishing themselves as one off, if not the sports leading club throughout Australia.

After an unprecedented season in 2007/08 which included 54 NSW representative players individual awards of Most Valuable Player to Jake Mason, Natasha Lo Giudice and Natalie Spirovski as well as 9 other awards alomg with most importantly having successfully won and retained the highly coveted Club Championship for 3 consecutive year, last season with the hiring of ex Futsalroo Jamie Amendolia as the teams head coach achieved what his predecessors couldn’t and recorded the clubs maiden Senior Men’s championship winning the grand final 3 goals to 1 and only recently took on the National side of New Zealand and comprehensively beat them 6-0 as well as having beaten Oceania favourites to Qualify for the World Cup the Solomon Islands 4-3.

Australia’s youngest ever Futsalroo, Amendolia’s feats haven’t gone unnoticed throughout Futsal and was only recently handed the reigns of the NSW Thunder side at the up coming National Championships in January.

There is also the extra incentive of victory in January as the winner will have a place as Australia’s representative at the inaugural Asian Futsal Club Championships held later that year.

Amendolia, as well having being re appointed as the Magic first grade coach next season has also been given the head coaching role in the revamped club overlooking the entire club set up.

With the continued support and backing of one of Australia’s most well known and respected brands in the PCYC (Police and Community Youth Clubs), Magic has managed to continue to elevate its status as the leading club in NSW off the court also.

Trying to establish itself as the sports first fully professional club it has been agreed that next season the First grade Men’s side will all be fully paid and with the clubs and PCYC full support of equality between sexes the First grade Women’s squad will also be fully paid for the first time.

“This is a truly remarkable feat, not since the National league days of decades past has a club come out and paid their entire squad and never has any club also paid their women’s side, I’ve only been at the club for one season and with PCYC’s backing the club is without doubt heading down the right path to become fully professional. We are already the leaders on the court and with some of the structures and ideas we are now implementing the club will continue to grow and establish itself Asia wide” said Amendolia

With Amendolia having traveled to Thailand recently for the Asian Futsal Championships Amendolia made good work of his time having met with numerous high ranking officials within the Asian Futsal Confederation.

One of those Men was Iranian Mr Ali Targholizade whom is the Futsal development officer and head of the coaches education and development in the A.F.C another of

those highly influential men was Thailand’s Adisak Benjasiriwan whom is the Head of the Thai National League and current A.F.C Futsal committee member with both men having numerous and ongoing talks with the club it seems Sydney Magic PCYC will now travel to Asia’s number 3 ranked nation annually.

Along with many other initiatives now being implemented such as the C.E.O award which is presented annually at the Clubs season ending presentation evening where one male and one female under the age of 16 are presented with a $500 scholarship which in turn pays for the players registration fees and state representative fees for the following season with Samantha Bergin and Jake Mason being the current recipients.

Continuing with its off court upgrade the club has began speaking to numerous overseas clubs in forming a link which will see young Magic players sent to Brazil to hone their skills and the club which seems to be closest to agreeing terms is Brazilian giants Malwee.

In the coming months Magic will be sending 2 players the first of an annual trip on an expenses paid 10-12 week scholarship to Brazil.

Malwee are 5 time Brazilian Cup winners and defending Brazilian Liga Champions and is also the home of the worlds best futsal player Falcao.

The up and coming players hand picked by Amendolia and the Clubs committee will spend 12 weeks training fulltime 2 times a day at the clubs training base in Santa Catarina where other top Youth players from around the world are also there honing their skills.

“Having spent time in Brazil myself as a player, the experience is unreal, what the kids will learn over there in 10 -12 weeks will take players here 1 to 2 years to learn that’s how beneficial it will be for our players”.

Dylan Maloney 18 and Roberto Maiorana 18 are the 2 players selected for this years trip and with both players having already established themselves within the Magic’s first grade team and both having represented the NSW Thunder Men’s team at the previous National Championships both players are deemed ready to push for the next step by Amendolia ” Look its still a long way away for both the boys to break into the Futsalroo side but the experience these 2 boys will have being in that fulltime environment will hopefully speed up that process, both boys are good enough to make it and hopefully they will continue to get better and break into that side sooner rather than later”.

“The competition is getting better and better every season, there are now so many talented players playing futsal in NSW it makes the competition so evenly matched, so we need to keep working hard to keep Magic ahead of the chasing pack and the chasing pack are really becoming top quality and a lot more professional.

Every year we try to set the standard, we have all accredited coaches and we will even have a fulltime goal keeper coach next season in current Futsalroo number 1 Peter Spathis, so that’s also something new.

We are looking forward to another intense but enjoyable season and hopefully our Men’s side can do the double” said Matteo Maiorana

With the Futsal Premier League scheduled to kickoff in mid September Sydney Magic PCYC look set to continue their ominous form and be there abouts come the seasons end with a 4th consecutive trophy not looking that far out of reach.

The future bodes extremely well for the club.

Source : Sydney Magic PCYC
Published in Australian British Soccer Weekly

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