Two promising North Queensland futsal players are flying to Brazil this morning for an 18-day training camp which also includes matches against local sides.

Mackay’s Kelsey Icardi, 16, and Moranbah’s Mitchell Williams, 17, will spend the next three weeks training and playing futsal, a version of indoor football, after selection in the Australia Vikings under-16 and under-17 futsal sides.

Futsal is played on a smaller football field, in two 18-minutes halves with no rebounds, unlike more traditional indoor football. Icardi, a year 11 student at North Mackay High School said her father Geoff was the main reason she got involved with the sport.

“My father played a lot of Futsal and eventually I played when I got to high school and I love it now,” she said, 24 hours before she left Australia.

“It is so much fun and the trip to Brazil will be amazing.”

Icardi qualified for the trip following her performances in the Whitsunday under-16s team at the national futsal championships in Brisbane last September.

Williams said he had to travel to Mackay twice a week to train for futsal.

“There are no training facilities in Moranbah so I have to come in on Sundays and Mondays to Mackay to train – but I love it and I don’t mind the travelling,” he said.

Williams also qualified after his efforts at the nationals in Brisbane last year. Both players will receive futsal training at Atletico Mineiro training academy and Minas Futsal training centre in Belo Horizonte.

Both players will play sides including Colegio Santo Antonio, Colegio Magnum, Clube America and Minas Tenis Clube.