Franco-Moroccan Star Breaks French Futsal Scoring Record with 61st Goal

Since Thursday, the pivot of the Blues and Étoile Lavalloise Abdessamad Mohammed has become the all-time top scorer for the French Futsal team. He scored in the 22nd minute of play, the second goal of the Blues during his friendly match against Croatia. He now has 61 goals in 85 caps, thus breaking the record previously held by Alexandre Teixeira (60 goals), according to the French Football Federation (FFF). The 32-year-old player describes it as "a special moment."

"I knew it was going to happen because I have the chance to score regularly and the record was not very far away. This record allows us to pause for a moment on the path traveled. Now I’m in my best years, so I hope to increase this figure as high as possible so that the next generations have a hard time beating this record," said Abdessamad. He says he is "very happy" and "very proud" to have broken Alexandre Teixeira’s record in his country of origin.

"I also have a thought for Alexandre Teixeira who was very hard to catch up with. The first person who sent me a message after the goal against Croatia was my father who told me ’congratulations my son for this record’. My father is not very far from here, about fifty kilometers from Rabat. My whole family is proud. Morocco is my country of origin, of course it touches me even more to have broken this record here," adds the Franco-Moroccan.

National team coach Raphaël Reynaud hails an "impressive, magnificent" record, not failing to praise Abdessamad’s merit. "It’s a just reward for the immensity of his talent. It’s due to his exceptional goal-scoring qualities. ’Abdé’ is just beginning. This figure there is very small compared to the figure there will be at the end of his career. [...] Abdessamad is someone who does things differently, who sees things differently from others. He is always in the counterattack. He is always in the search for what others do not do, without even realizing it and that is why it is not surprising, because he is different from others."