In case there’s any doubt that Brazil produces some of the best footballers—men and women—on the globe, meet Amanda Lyssa de Oliveira Crisostomo. Known to her friends as “Amandinha,” the electric futsaler is a member of the Brazil women’s national futsal team and was recently named Best Woman Player of the World by FutsalPlanet’s Annual Futsal Awards. This is the second consecutive year Amandinha has won that title, one of many accomplishments for the 21-year-old university student who’s been playing professionally since the age of 16.
Amandinha grew up in the city of Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil, developing her skills through street football and as a young teenager setting her sights on becoming the world’s top futsaler someday. That moment has clearly arrived for the brilliant and hard-working playmaker, who just last month led the Brazilian women’s team to defend its gold medal at the 2016 futsal World University Championship.
Watch Amandinha talk about her background, vision as a player, the challenges of balancing training with school studies, and more in this Eurosport video profile:
