Courtesy: Wiltshire Times

Luke Ballinger (Photo courtesy: UEFA.com)


Melksham Town man Luke Ballinger becomes first player to win 100 England Futsal caps

by Matthew Edwards

PETER Shilton, Bobby Moore, David Beckham, it is some impressive roll-call that can say that they have represented England more than 100 times and now Luke Ballinger can add his name to that list.

In Tuesday night’s 3-3 draw with Germany, the 28-year-old Melksham Town player marked his 100th cap representing England at Futsal.

The modified form of football, which is played indoors with five players on smaller, tiled pitches, has taken off in the last decade and Ballinger has been at the forefront on the national stage.

The former Chippenham Town man became the first English player to make it to 100 games, a feat that he described as overwhelming, playing in front of a sell-out 1,750 crowd and shown live on German television.

“When I first started out, I never thought I would be making it to 100 caps,” he told the Wiltshire Times.

“It is a bit weird just to have one cap playing for England. To have 100, it is a little bit overwhelming at the moment.

“I’m just taking in all the comments from everyone when I was over there.

“It was a great day. The German FA were fantastic in putting a great show on. The stadium was fantastic, it was full and they had it on television with about half a million viewers.

“It was one of the best trips I have been on in terms of the showcase itself and it was a really nice occasion to mark my 100th cap.”

Having broken new ground on the pitch, Ballinger is also keen to get the sport thriving in his local community, having set up a Future of Football Academy and a Melksham FOF Futsal side.

Many who have reached such milestones in the past have been coming to the end of their career but Ballinger sees no reason why he can’t keep going, with a Four Nations event in Cardiff next month and European qualifiers in Bulgaria in January.

“It is 10 years of hard work and dedication and a lot of time given up and put into Futsal,” he added.

“Whether it will be done again, I am not sure it will be done in the next three or four years, but I am sure it will be broken one day. I am happy to be the first and set a path for people to follow.

“It’s a question asked a lot, how long can you go?

“At 28, you would say that you still have a few years left in you but the thing is, the game is like a drug and you get addicted to it and the buzz of being away and representing your country.

“There isn’t a time scale on that at the moment, let’s take each game as it comes and go from there.”



Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com