Fleet-footed: Gabriel Lima will play at next month's FIFA Futsal World Cup in the colours of Italy. — VNS Photo Tien Thanh

HCM CITY (VNS) — The HCM City international exhibition futsal championship kicks off today at the Tan Binh Gymnasium, Tan Binh District, with Uzbekistan taking on Kuwait and Viet Nam facing Italy.

The tournament will finish on October 27.

For Viet Nam and Uzbekistan, it is an opportunity to try new players and build a core of players for the future.

Italy and Kuwait, who are treating the tournament as training for the World Cup, will not play each other.

The Italian futsal team, ranked third in the world, has arrived in Viet Nam for the event. Playing in HCM City also enabled the Italians to acclimatise to Southeast Asia ahead of the Futsal World Cup to be played in Thailand next month.

"Futsal is not like football. But if you have a career in futsal, you have plenty of opportunities to do what you want," Gabriel Lima, one of the best players in the team, said at a press conference yesterday.

"Playing futsal also gives me an opportunity to study at university after retirement. I will go to university and study marketing. I hope to work in sports marketing or other areas in the sport. — VNS