Japan’s Ozu and Englishwoman Clark win Best Player awards at Beach Soccer Stars in Dubai

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

England’s Molly Clark picked up the Women’s Best Player award at Beach Soccer Stars 2021 on Saturday night, while Japan captain Ozu Moreira took the Men’s Best Player trophy.

Beach Soccer Stars honours the season’s very best for being at the very pinnacle of the sport, and the 2021 edition of the awards were held at the beach soccer stadium on Kite Beach, which had hosted the final of the 10th Tecnotree Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup Dubai earlier in the night, where World champions Russia defeated Iran 3-2 for their fourth Dubai title.

The Beach Soccer Stars gala kicked off with a speech by Beach Soccer Worldwide President Joan Cusco, who thanked the people gathered and offered a special thank you to the event partners and to Dubai Sports Council for organising yet another incredible Tecnotree Intercontinental Beach Soccer Cup Dubai and the Beach Soccer Stars.

Saeed Hareb, Secretary General of Dubai Sports Council, extended his thanks to the audience as well as everyone who worked at the events in Dubai. “On behalf of my family, Dubai Sports Council, to you, I would like to thank you all and I hope to see you next year,” he said.

The Best Event was then presented by Hareb, and the winner was the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, collected by Alex Alaev, Secretary General of the RFU, who said that the success of the event and the award was a “dream come true”.

The Best Coach award went to the victorious coach of the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, Mikhail Likhachev of Russia.

Nicolae Ignat from Moldova won Best Goal, with his screamer in the EBSL Regular Phase in Moldova and - after an incredible World Cup, winning the CAF Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations and performing in the Intercontinental Cup - Raoul Mendy from Senegal won the Rising Star award.

As for the safest pair of hands in the game, the Best Goalkeeper trophy went to Eliott Mounoud from Switzerland. Eilott’s performance in Russia helped Switzerland reach third place in the World Cup, and he was awarded the FIFA Golden Glove.

Then it was time for the dream team of beach soccer, the award known as the Best 5 Stars. Eliott was named as the keeper, while in front of him in defence were Japan’s Ozu and Brazil’s Catarino. In front of them, were Philipp Borer from Switzerland and Be Martins from Portugal.

After that, it was time for the grand finale of the event – the Best Players of the year.

First to be presented was the Women’s Best Player award, and it went to England’s Clark, who paid tribute to her teammates and said that she works every day to be at her best. It was the second time Clark had been nominated for the award, but was beaten to it in 2018 by Russian Marina Federova.

Finally, Ozu Moreira, Japanese captain, was announced as the Best Player of 2021. On receiving the award, he gave a speech in Japanese to his teammates in the audience and watching at home.