Salvador Ardil Navarro (born 17 April 1988), better known as Chiky Ardil, is a Spanish

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or sand soccer, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand between two teams of five players each. Association football has long been played informally on ...

player who plays as a forward. He has appeared at two editions of the

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament was preceded by the Beach Soccer World Championshi ...

(

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

and

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

) representing the Spain national team; at the European qualifying tournament for the latter, he won the MVP award and was named as one of the best three players in the world in 2022. His younger brother, David, also plays for Spain.

Career

Salvador believes his nickname "Chiky" originates from when he was a toddler, and considerably smaller than his three other siblings. "Chiky" is a truncating of the Spanish word "chiquitín", meaning tiny. He began playing

futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

aged five before quickly switching to

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

under the wing of his older brother, Raúl. Chiky ultimately established himself as a footballer in the third tier of Spanish football, having spells at multiple clubs including Lorca Deportiva, CD Bala Azul, Granada 74, Rayo Majadahonda, Pinatar CF and Águilas CF. Chiky eventually accepted an invite from friends to partake in a beach soccer tournament in his hometown of Mazarrón. Having enjoyed it, Chiky and his team began taking part regularly in tournaments in

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and municipalities of Spain, municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean port. The population ...

and

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. In 2013, after a tournament in

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, he was called up to the Murcian regional team. His first tournament with the team was a success, in which he scored 18 goals; Spain coach Joaquín Alonso was impressed and called Chiky up to the national team. Chiky debuted for Spain at stage 5 of the 2013 Euro Beach Soccer League in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, however he was ultimately not selected for the 2013 World Cup later that year. In 2014, Chiky was called back to the national team following a runners-up finish with Bala Azul in the Spanish National Beach Soccer League. After qualifying for the 2015 World Cup, Chiky received a special reception by the Mayor of Mazarrón at the town hall. Since 2017, Chiky has found himself amongst the awards: his overhead kick against

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

during the 2017 Euro Beach Soccer League was nominated for best goal of the year, whilst he claimed his first individual international award in 2018 when he was top scorer at the Nazaré stage of the 2018 Euro Beach Soccer League; he was nominated for best beach soccer goal of the year again in 2019. In 2021, he was deemed MVP of the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, something he called "a landmark moment" in his career. He was subsequently received by the Mayor of Mazarrón again before leaving to play for Spain at the 2021 World Cup; at said tournament, he was Spain's top scorer with six goals. Chiky's reputation peaked in 2022 aged 34 when he scooped multiple individual accolades at tournaments, three recognitions at that year's Beach Soccer Stars awards (including being voted as one of the world's three best players), and became European club champion with Benfica Loures at the

2022 Euro Winners Cup The 2022 Euro Winners Cup was the tenth edition of the Euro Winners Cup (EWC), an annual continental beach soccer tournament for men's top-division European clubs. The championship is the sport's version of the better known UEFA Champions League in ...

. He continues to play football in the Spanish third tier, for Mazarrón FC. He claims he has had to make "a lot of sacrifice in order to be able to play both sports, including performing double training sessions, one for each sport. He claims he will give up football to focus on beach soccer when Mazarrón FC no longer want his service.

Statistics

;Country ;Club

Honours

The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major international honours Chiky has achieved with Spain:

Team

* UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup **Winner (1):

* Intercontinental Cup **Runner-up (1):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Euro Beach Soccer League The Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) is the premier competition in beach soccer featuring European men's national teams. The competition has been held annually since its establishment in 1998, making it the oldest beach soccer tournament in Europe ...

**Runner-up (3):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

**Third place (1):

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic tradition contested by athletes from countries served by national Olympic committees within the European Olympic Committees (EOC), the regional association for such committ ...

: **Silver medal (1):

**Bronze medal (1):

*UEFA qualifiers for the World Beach Games **Winner (1):

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

**Runner-up (1):

* Euro Beach Soccer Cup: **Winner (1):

* Mundialito **Winner (1): 2022 **Runner-up (1): 2018 *

Mediterranean Beach Games The Mediterranean Beach Games is a multi-sport event organized by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM) since 2015. Formation The CIJM formed the games in a meeting on October 20, 2012 in Mersin, Turkey, and decided on a for ...

**Gold medal (1):

Euro Winners Cup The Euro Winners Cup (EWC) is an annual, continental beach soccer club competition contested between top-division European teams; the clubs that are their country's national league/cup champions (and, for some nations, one or more runners-up) from ...

**Winner (1):

Individual

* Beach Soccer Stars (3): **World's top 3 best players: 2022 **World dream team: 2022 **Goal of the year: 2022 * UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (1): **Best player: 2021 *

(1): **Regular season stages: ***Top scorer: 2018 (x1) * Intercontinental Cup (1): **Top scorer: 2021 * Mundialito (1): **Best player: 2022 *UEFA qualifiers for the World Beach Games (2): **Top scorer: 2022 **Best player: 2022

References

External links

Salvador Ardil Navarro
profile at Beach Soccer Worldwide {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardil, Chiky 1988 births Living people Spanish men's footballers Spanish beach soccer players Men's association football forwards European Games silver medalists for Spain European Games bronze medalists for Spain European Games medalists in beach soccer Beach soccer players at the 2015 European Games Beach soccer players at the 2019 European Games Beach soccer players at the 2023 European Games People from Mazarrón Sportspeople from the Region of Murcia 21st-century Spanish sportsmen