Alessandro Rosa Vieira (born 8 June 1977), known as Falcão, is a Brazilian retired professional

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 ...

player, often regarded as the greatest futsal player of all time and its biggest icon. He is known for his flashy and potent

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

skills and a powerful and accurate left foot. He is also the world's all-time leading goalscorer in men's international matches. He was named as the Best Futsal Player in the World four times (2004, 2006, 2011 and 2012) and won the

FIFA Futsal World Cup The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherla ...

Golden Shoe in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and the Golden Ball twice, in 2004 and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Today he is a YouTuber teaching futsal tricks and showing different things about futsal culture. His YouTube channel already has more than 1 million of subscribers

Career

Falcão joined the Guarapira futsal club in the northern zone of the city at the age of 13. He joined

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

in 1993 and became professional in 1993. He debuted in the senior team in 1994. In 1997, he joined GM-Chevrolet, owned by the

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

company. After leaving in 1999, he switched teams frequently until 2003, when he ended up in Jaraguá. After changing clubs again from 2011 to 2012, he joined

Sorocaba Sorocaba () is a municipality in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil. With over 723,000 inhabitants, it is the seventh-largest city in the state and the second-largest outside the Greater São Paulo region, ranking behind only Cam ...

in 2013, where he played until 2018. In 2004, 2006, 2011 and 2012, he was recognised as the Best Futsal Player in the World. On 26 June 2015, Falcão joined

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

's futsal team for a tournament in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

. He also played in the inaugural season of the

Asian Premier Futsal Championship The Premier Futsal was an Indian franchise-based futsal league conceptualised by Indian entrepreneurs under the entity of Pvt. Ltd. It was founded by Abhinandan Balasubramanian, Dinesh Raj and Nithyashree Subban, backed by business magnate ...

for

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n side Chennai 5s, scoring five goals in the tournament. He also had a brief spell playing 11-a-side football with

São Paulo Futebol Clube SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Serb Autonomous Regions (''Srpska autonomna oblast'', SAO), during the breakup of ...

during the first half of 2005, including in the

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

, but returned to futsal soon after. Internationally, Falcão scored 401 goals in 258 appearances for the

Brazil national futsal team The Brazil national futsal team represents Brazil in international futsal competitions. It is under the direction of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). The team is considered to be the strongest in the world earning a record three strai ...

. At the

and

s, the latter on home soil, he was recognised by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

as the Best Player of the tournaments. In 2008 and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

, he helped Brazil win their 4th and 5th title in the FIFA Futsal World Cup. On 22 September 2016, Falcão retired from the national team after they were eliminated by

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

in the round of 16 at the 2016 World Cup. Despite the early exit, he managed to score 10 goals, winning the Bronze Shoe and ultimately becoming the all-time top goalscorer in FIFA Futsal World Cup history, having scored 48 times. Falcão is considered by many football experts and players the greatest player in futsal history. Besides being one of the greatest players in the sport's history, Falcão also participated on two of the most viewed futsal matches in history.

Honours

Club

;Futsal * South-American Championship: 2001, 2004 * Liga Futsal: 1999, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 * Brazilian Club Cup: 1998, 2003, 2004 * São Paulo City Cup: 1995, 1998, 2002 *Paulista Championship: 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2014, 2017 * Mineiro Championship: 1999 * Catarinense Championship: 2003 *

Metropolitan Championship The Metropolitan Championship, or Campeonato Metropolitano, was a professional golf tournament on the PGA of Argentina Tour, formerly the principal professional golf tour in Argentina. First held in 1955, it has always been held at the Palermo Gol ...

: 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 * Topper São Paulo Cup: 1997, 2001 ;Football *

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF), ...

: 2005

National team

Futsal Mundialito The Futsal Mundialito is an international futsal competition of the same kind of the FIFA Futsal World Cup but with invited nations similar to the Grand Prix de Futsal. It was first held in 1994. Results Medal count Participating nations ;Legen ...

: 2001 * Nations Cup: 2001 * RJ International Cup: 1998 *

American Cup The American Football Association Challenge Cup (also known as the American Association Cup or simply American Cup) was the first major U.S. soccer competition open to teams beyond a single league. It was first held in 1884, and organised by t ...

: 1998, 1999, 2011 * South American Qualification: 2000, 2008 *

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international official football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949, the football federations came together and requested FIFA launch the competition ...

: 2003 * Tigers 5 Tournament – Singapore: 1999 * Egypt Tournament: 2002 * Thailand Tournament: 2003 *

Pan American Games The Pan American Games, known as the Pan Am Games, is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas. It features thousands of athletes participating in competitions to win different summer sports. It is held among athletes from nations of th ...

: 2007 *

Grand Prix de Futsal The Grand Prix de Futsal is an international futsal competition of the same kind of the FIFA Futsal World Cup but with invited nations and held annually in Brazil. It was first held in 2005. History In 2007, the sixteen participating nations are ...

: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 * KL World 5s – Malaysia: 2008 *

: 2008, 2012 * ODESUR Games: 2002, 2010

Individual

* Best Futsal Player of the World: 2004, 2006, 2011, 2012 *

Golden Shoe: 2004 *

Golden Ball: 2004, 2008 *

Silver Shoe: 2008 *

Bronze Shoe: 2016 * The FIFA Award for an Outstanding Career: 2016

International goals

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falcao 1977 births Living people Brazilian men's futsal players Brazilian men's footballers São Paulo FC players ADC Intelli players Futsal players at the 2007 Pan American Games Pan American Games gold medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in futsal Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games Footballers from São Paulo (state) Men's association football forwards Copa Libertadores–winning players People from Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo