In the new futsal season, premier divisionist ASV Lebo will continue as Os Lusitanos. The two clubs from Amsterdam-West recently decided to merge and hope to reap the benefits in several areas. “The Lusitanos women’s team plays at the highest level and that applies to the men’s team at Lebo,” says Mohamed Attaibi. The top futsal player is one of the driving forces behind the merger.
“I started my career at Lusitanos and now the circle is complete again,” says Mohamed Attaibi about one of his arguments for returning to the Amsterdam club. The futsal international comes over from FC Marlène from Heerhugowaard. “In addition, I promised Carlos Martins. He is the founder of Lusitanos and unfortunately recently passed away. A great man to whom I owe a lot.”
“Right Club”
Where Lebo played in the top of the Eredivisie in recent seasons, Lusitanos acted in the first division. “At a certain point, the chairman of Lebo contacted me and the Lusitanos board,” says Attaibi about the initial talks to join forces. “The Lebo board wanted to take a step back and they saw us as the right club to merge. We also liked that.”
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The chairman of Lebo is Ronald van Teeffelen. “After sixteen years, I thought it was enough. And our board is also getting older.” However, Van Teeffelen remains involved in the new merger club, only more in the background. “We keep an eye on things and are happy to transfer our knowledge, but the new board will make the decisions and I have every confidence in that.”
“I think that the level of futsal will rise considerably if professional clubs take care of us”
Ajax
Yet Lusitanos was not the first dream partner, Van Teeffelen told NH Sport. “We first tried to find accommodation at Ajax. I think the level of futsal will go up considerably if professional clubs start taking care of us. Not only futsal, but also other sports. You see that kind of omni associations a lot in Spain and Portugal Plus, something like that is good for the image of the ‘Ajax’ brand. Unfortunately for Lebo and futsal, the Amsterdam professional club didn’t like that. Maybe this will happen again in the future.”
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Reinforcements
Through the merger, Lusitanos hopes to score high in the Eredivisie. In addition to Attaibi, reinforcements such as international Iliass Bouzit (Hovocubo) and Hoessein Jabir (Veerhuys) will also arrive. “In recent years, Lebo has been at the top and now with the necessary experience we hope to compete for the prizes,” says Attaibi. The 35-year-old futsal player wants to fully concentrate on football itself from now on. “After all, there is now a very capable board that can excellently carry out all operational matters.”
Where Lebo continues under the name of Lusitanos, the home games still take place in the trusted sports hall of the Calvin College on the Pieter Calandlaan in Amsterdam-West. The trainer duo Eric de Jongh and Raoul Polnaja take place on the bench. The previous coach of Lebo, Zaid el Morabiti, announced earlier this year that he would stop and focus more on his position as assistant coach with the Dutch futsal team.
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