Amarelle leads parade of heavyweight talents

Dubai: The sand supremo of beach soccer, Ramiro Amarelle and other star players from the four corners of the globe, are finding their feet as they arrive on Arabian sands for next week's Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup 2009.

Even a brief glance at the list of 192 players called up for the Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 confirms the sheer weight of talent with the final two teams arriving in Dubai yesterday.

As stars such as Amarelle and Roberto Valeiro — the adidas Golden Ball and Golden Glove winners at Marseilles 2008 — who are both expected to take leading roles for La Roja once more, arrive in Dubai it is certain that others are waiting in the wings for their chance for glory.

Brazilian livewire Buru, awarded the Golden Ball and Golden Shoe at Rio de Janeiro 2007, and the goal-hungry Portuguese Madjer, who claimed the Golden Shoe at Marseilles 2008 are also among the ones to watch here.

Japan and Bahrain were the last two teams to qualify for the World Cup at the same venue last week to book their place alongside European champions Spain and World champions Brazil respectively.

Missing from this edition will be 2005 world champions France after they failed to qualify from Europe. However, there is an emergence of new powers in the form of debutants Switzerland, Cote d'Ivoire and Costa Rica.

The UAE are scheduled to open their campaign with a match against Portugal on November 16 while their other group matches are against the Solomon Islands on November 17 and Uruguay on November 18.

What, when, where

The Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup 2009 will be held from November 16 to 22.

The event takes place at Umm Suqeim beach, Jumeirah, Dubai.

For tickets log on to www.fifa.com/beachsoccerworldcup.com.