WILLIAM Potter, 13, has only been playing futsal for a year, and he has already been selected to represent Australia in an international competition.

While the Bonython schoolboy has played soccer since kindergarten, William says he enjoys the faster pace of futsal and how his abilities have grown since he started playing.

“I feel like it helps me grow my fast reaction and footwork skills,” he says.

Futsal is a five-a-side, soccer-based game played between two teams on a hard court surface. It uses a smaller, harder, lower-bounce ball than football.

William’s mum Rachelle says his journey to beginning futsal started at school.

“His PE teacher – a very passionate futsal player – put them in for an inter-school match and William got head-hunted there. Then he went to play for the ACT,” she says.

In the October school holidays, William represented the ACT at the National School Championships in Brisbane.

While playing there he came to the attention of national selectors.

“I play as goalkeeper. Sometimes I try and play outfield, but it doesn’t work,” he says.

The international competition will get underway in the UK in April.

“I am excited and nervous. I am not really nervous for the competition, I am nervous for the plane ride,” says William. “We have been on a cruise but I’ve never flown overseas.”

“I am really excited for the sight-seeing, too, because we get to go to Premier League matches, but I don’t know who we are watching yet.”

In the competition line-up, William and his team are set to play against England, Wales and Scotland.

“I want us to win. I think we will have the skills, it’s just not my main focus. I want to develop a lot while I am over there. I want to develop everything,” he says.

With international travel causing a large expense, a Go Fund Me page has been set up so friends, family and the community can support William. They have raised $3705 of the $9850 target so far.

His soccer club, The Burns Club, has been very supportive, and given “quite a bit of money, too”, which Rachelle and William say is greatly appreciated.

“My family are my biggest supporters. My friends are big supporters, too, but family are more,” says William.

William has big dreams for his future in futsal, hoping this could be the start of a career in the sport.

“I want to play professionally after I have finished at school. But for back-up, maybe I could be a sports teacher. I would say I’m good at sport at school,” he says.

With his strength showing in goalkeeping, he says a lot of his role models are past goalkeepers, “especially Lev Yashin, the only goalkeeper to ever win the Ballon d’Or” – a football award presented annually by France Football since 1956.

“It is important to train, and it is important to have a team where you actually know people, and you can talk to them and progress with them,” he says.

“There was one person from Brisbane when I represented the ACT, he also made the same team. I know him well.

Between training sessions and game-play, futsal takes up a lot of his time. 

“I have outdoor training on Mondays, goalkeeper training and a futsal game on Tuesday, and either futsal or outdoor training on Thursday,” he says.

“We have an oval just down the road. I sometimes go down there for training by myself, or we have a wall and grass out the front that I usually do stuff on and I practice at school during lunch breaks.”

Donations to gofundme.com/f/send-will-to-the-uk-to-represent-australia