MADRID, Spain.- Cuban futsal player Harold Aguilera, one of the most prominent figures of the national team, deserted during the team’s training camp in Viseu, Portugal, where they were preparing for the Futsal World Cup to be held in Uzbekistan next September. The 22-year-old from Camagüey left the team after a friendly match against Ukraine, according to reports from the magazine Play-Off Magazine.
Aguilera, who played as a lock and was an undisputed starter on the team, was instrumental in Cuba’s qualification for the World Cup. In the 2024 World Cup Qualifiers in Nicaragua, his goal in the tournament allowed Cuba to tie 3-3 with Costa Rica in the semi-finals. The match was decided by penalties and led Cuba to the final.
After that last April The Cuban team will qualify for the Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan, the official media Forward He noted that Harold Aguilera had been “a key piece” for that classification, “the most relevant performance in team sports so far this year.”
The Caribbeans, who are in the final stretch of their preparation for their sixth participation in a Futsal World Cup, have suffered significant defeats in their first friendly matches in Portugal: they fell 9-0 to Portugal and 7-0 against Ukraine.
The Cuban team is scheduled to face Costa Rica this Sunday, August 25, before traveling to Spain to face local teams. The team will then depart for Uzbekistan on September 9.
The 2024 Uzbekistan World Cup will be held from 14 September to 6 October and will be the tenth edition of this tournament.
During the aforementioned Nicaragua qualifier, Lázaro Castro, a full-back for the national team, left the team. In November of last year, Two members of the team left the team with which they had traveled to Costa Rica to practice matches in view of the aforementioned CONCACAF tournament. They were Ernesto Duanes, from Ciego de Ávila, and Bárbaro Shelier, from Havana.
