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Falcao had announced that Colombia 2016 would be his last FIFA Futsal World Cup™. At 39, he was the oldest of the 336 players at the tournament, but he was still among the best.
Back-to-back Falcao hat-tricks thundered Brazil into the last 16. IR Iran lay in wait – in wait, said the consensus, to take a pummelling.
That was quickly on the cards. Falcao’s vicious volley broke the deadlock, before he netted one of the most imaginative goals to ever decorate the competition. Falcao jumped over a free-kick and Rodrigo, nicknamed ‘Torpedo’, shaped to blast it. Instead, Rodrigo slipped it into Falcao, who had craftily snuck past the opposition goalkeeper and his wall. He had his back to goal and minimum room, but Falcao magically flicked the ball through his own legs to score.
His opposite No12, Hossein Tayyebi, pulled one back, but Dieguinho restored Brazil’s two-goal cushion midway through the second half. Iran were not, however, done. Afshin Kazemi halved the deficit after magical work from Tayyebi, before Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh rounded off a tremendous team move to force extra-time.
Falcao lobbed the goalkeeper to seal his third straight treble and restore Brazil’s lead, only for a delightful Mohammad Keshavarz dink to send it to penalties.
Falcao scored his, but Ari struck the upright and Ahmad Esmaeilpour snatched Iran a place in the quarter-finals for the first time.
Iran had pulled off arguably the greatest upset in the tournament’s history, but they graciously put their celebrations on hold in order to pay a fitting tribute to an incomparable legend. Falcao had lifted the trophy and seized the adidas Golden Ball at two FIFA Futsal World Cups apiece, and was its all-time leading marksman on 48 goals and 34 games.
The Iranians immediately circled Falcao and began pushing him up into the Bangkok air and down again. “Our celebrations could wait,” explained Keshavarz. “This is Falcao, the greatest, and we wanted to pay our tribute to him.”
“I was really, really sad at the time because I wanted to win that World Cup so badly,” said Falcao years later. “But looking back it was a really nice gesture. It’s something everyone remembers.”
