Sixteen year old Jacob Richardson will represent Football Federation Victoria for the third consecutive year at the Australian National Futsal Championships.  After trialling recently, Richardson put in a good solid effort to be identified as the team’s goalkeeper again, this time by head coach, Garry Liakoureas, and assistant coach, Andrew Burgess.

Two years ago when he was in the Victorian U14 team they went through the Futsal Nationals undefeated only to lose to NSW in a very fast moving Final.  Last year as U15s the team had a tougher time but Richardson was selected as one of the Captains.  This year the Victorians are looking to get back to where they were more of a strong force in 2011.

This will be Jacobs fifth State representative side after also representing Victoria in outdoor at the u14 and u15 FFA National Youth Championships.  There are no outdoor State teams for his age anymore so players are urged to get identified through other avenues.

In July, Richardson was invited to travel with Footskills Australia to China to compete in the U18 section of The Great Wall of Beijing Cup.  The team was very successful going through the tournament undefeated.  That makes it two Titles in a row as six months earlier the team won the U15 section of the International Youth Challenge Cup in Singapore Cup he also received the goalkeeper of the tournament award. Unfortunately there was no award for that at the Beijing Cup where he was outstanding.

Richardson continues to improve and impress.  He was invited to trial at Victorian Premier Leagues Dandenong Thunder by coach, Lou Kastner. Richardson trialled well and Kastner wanted him to sign him up but as it was late in the season he will now go down for pre-season training.  He then received a personal invitation by George Cowie to attend the West Ham United Oceania National Camp.  The purpose of the camp was for player Identification.  Jacob trained with the Westham Academy and received very positive feedback from the International coaches to which he can now take in and improve even more for further identification selection. As a goalkeeper, competing in both indoor and outdoor competitions helps him become a sharper, more agile and a better tactical player that is able to read the game more effectively.

During the winter season he played for Sale United Football Club where he played in the u21 team and also had a stint in the first division team. Although he only played half the season for the u21 side he still came in third place for the Best & Fairest Player award.

Jacob currently plays indoor soccer with the Wellington Shires competition at the Gippsland Regional Sports Complex. 

State training is every Saturday at Oakleigh until Christmas and then the team will have a camp before leaving for the Championships.  Prior to State training each weekend Richardson has goalkeeper training with Melbourne Victory GK Coach, Steve Mautone.

The 34^th FFA (Football Federation Australia) Futsal National Championships will be held at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra from Monday 7^th January until Friday 11^th January 2013.

Victoria will be sending boys and girls teams in the u12; u14; u16; u19 and Open Men and Open Womens age groups.