14 years have passed since Futsal Minerva was founded. Since then, the Minerva team has won the title seven times and the cup twice. There is no doubt that if Corona had not led to the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the palmares would have been even richer, as no other club has won the championship since 2019.
The man who makes the success possible is Miro Prskalo, a Swiss-Croatian dual citizen and lawyer in Bern. He has been there since the club was founded, used to play football in the Valais, where his roots lie, and in the early years also with Futsal Minerva. He signs the players. In negotiations, he benefits from the fact that he speaks six languages, including Portuguese, which is particularly important in futsal. He finds jobs for the foreign players and looks after the sponsors. “We cannot afford full-time professionals; even the coach, like all the other players from abroad, has at least a 50 percent job.” Caio Japa, for example, the star player of past years, retired at the end of the season. He is now the sports director and drives around with beer, not to drink it himself, but as a chauffeur for the Rugen brewery to deliver it to their customers. The Brazilian, who is still revered as a hero since his time at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, receives high praise from the president. “It’s unbelievable what he’s doing for the club in his new role. He has everything under control, is accepted by the coaching staff and the players, and takes a lot of work off my hands.” And if there’s ever an emergency, Japa could return to the field tomorrow, despite being 40 years old.
Many changes
No fewer than eight players left the club at the end of last season, and President Prskalo and sporting director Japa compensated for this by bringing in seven new players (see box). “We are younger and therefore faster and more unpredictable for our opponents,” says Prskalo. “We have significantly less experience, but the new players are all willing to train and work hard, they want to make progress every day and benefit from working with coach Pedro Santos.”
Eighth title – third cup win
The goals that Minerva’s management has set for the next season are high and ambitious. “We are fully committed to our eighth title and our third cup win; anything else would be a bitter disappointment,” explains Miro Prskalo. But since there is hardly any real competition in sight in Switzerland, with the exception of city rivals Mobulu Futsal Uni Bern, the team finally wants to make a splash on the European stage, although the competition from Portugal, Spain and Croatia is probably not within reach yet. At the weekend, Minerva successfully contested the Champions League preliminary round in the cauldron of Sofia, where the hall holds 12,000 spectators, with victories over Cymru Futsal (Wales) 5:1, Fiorentino San Marino (14:0) and the host country Amigo Northwest (Bulgaria) 5:2, and qualified for the main round. “That was not an easy task,” says Minerva’s president, “because the Bulgarians were able to benefit from the support of their fanatical audience.” The task is now even more delicate in the main round, for which Minerva qualified thanks to winning its group. From October 22 to 27, Minerva will face hosts Etoile Lavalloise, Stalista Minsk (Belarus) and Uddevalla (Sweden) in Laval (France).
Women on the rise
The women of Futsal Minerva have also made great progress in recent years. Founded nine years ago, the team won the championship in the West group in its most successful season to date, qualified for the playoff semi-finals and reached the quarter-finals in the cup.
