Sippican School student showcases futsal talent in Spain

MARION — Santa Claus receives millions of letters from kids asking for gifts each December. This year, he received a different type of request from a Marion resident.

Eight year-old Beckham Harvey and his futsal team FC Flair qualified for the World Futsal Cup in Barcelona, Spain.

Harvey and his family had to depart for the airport on Christmas Eve, so he asked St. Nick to stop by the Harvey home a night before Claus usually makes his rounds.

A soccer player while the weather is warm, Harvey switches over to futsal during the winter.

Per his description, futsal is extremely similar to soccer, but the ball is smaller. The game is played on a basketball court and each team has 5 players on the court at a time.

Although Harvey prefers playing regular soccer over futsal, the style of the game fits to his abilities, according to his father Robert Harvey.

“He’s a very creative player,” said Robert of Beckham. “He has more skill in his left foot than I do my whole body.”

Robert said the tight spaces players deal with in Futsal forces them to be creative.

The Harvey family is used to travelling for futsal, as Beckham’s team often practices in Framingham and Boston.

Although there may be some time for fun, Beckham said the journey is a business trip.

“We’re going there to get some trophies,” the Sippican Elementary School student said before he left.

And FC Flair did just that, winning 4 games in Spain and losing just one. The team is taking home a third place trophy.

The World Futsal Cup is known as the most prestigious youth futsal tournament in the world, according to Robert Harvey.

Beckham, born in 2016, is playing up a level, on a team made up of players born in 2015.

The 8-year old also has a personal record of 756 juggles, or times consecutively using the knee or foot to keep the ball from touching the ground.

“It’s kind of all he has time for,” said Beckham’s mom Vanessa Harvey. “He loves it.”