Top Footvolley Stars Descend on Tenerife for European Finals

This Friday, a major footvolley event kicks off in Los Cristianos, Tenerife, hoping to become one of the island's top sporting attractions. The Footvolley League of Champions Finals will take over the southern beaches from Friday until Sunday, November 30th. It will bring together national teams, clubs, and famous players, all focused on a sport that's growing incredibly fast.

This isn't just any footvolley tournament; it's the European club final, featuring the continent's best teams. Event organizer Sergio Bocha Silva explains that the "level is extremely high," made even better by the arrival of "Brazilian and Israeli players," who are global leaders in the sport and are visiting Tenerife for the first time.

Setting up the event, which finished yesterday, was a race against time. Bocha said he and his team worked non-stop to get everything ready, especially because so many teams signed up – far more than expected. Thirty pairs will compete in the qualifying rounds alone, hoping to reach the main competition happening tomorrow and the day after. This is a huge boost for a sport that was almost unknown not long ago.

The Silva family is at the heart of it all. Sergio, his son Facu, and daughter Yosy are a close-knit family dedicated to footvolley. Los Cristianos is their home and where they run Serfay, the first footvolley school in the Canary Islands. This school has already produced many talented players.

While this weekend features the League of Champions Finals, next week will see the VII Bocha Silva Tournament, also supported by the same organizers. Even though the atmosphere feels like family, everyone plays to win. Bocha himself, despite managing stands, social media, and schedules, will also compete. Yosy and Facu will be by his side, as always, forming the core team. They'll be joined by many local stars, including Néstor Tomé, Iván Sanfiel, Johnny Yanes, Óscar Fumero, Miguel Castro, Ariel Díaz, and Djavan Rodríguez.

In short, top players from Brazil and Israel, along with a fantastic lineup, are coming to Tenerife this Friday. These are players who seemed out of reach just a couple of seasons ago. The organizer says, "It's the first time such good players are coming; teams from Israel, who are currently the strongest in Europe, are coming, as well as a top-level Brazilian pair." He admits that attracting such high-calibre players wasn't easy. He credits two things: consistency and climate. First, the steady growth of a club that started small with local tournaments and expanded thanks to the organizing team's hard work. Second, the irresistible draw of Tenerife's climate in the middle of the European winter.

So, the secret to their success is clear. Bocha believes Tenerife offers a unique combination in November that no other place in Europe can match. Besides the weather and beaches, there are training camps and group training sessions – in which Yosy Silva takes part – encouraging more and more international players to choose the Canary Islands as their training base.

Footvolley began on Brazilian beaches in the 1980s. Footballers adapted to playing beach volleyball without using their hands. This mix of football and volleyball created a fast and skillful sport, played by pairs on sand. Players can't use their hands and can touch the ball a maximum of three times per team. It arrived in Spain in the 2000s, becoming popular in regions like Valencia, Catalonia, and the Canary Islands. Although still developing, it's a sport with a growing number of tournaments, specialized schools, and international presence. With sun, sand, friendship, and outdoor play, footvolley is not only exciting to watch but also deeply connected to beach culture. Moves like bicycle kicks, for example, are common and spectacular, showing off the perfect blend of skill and acrobatics that makes the sport so appealing.

For those new to the sport, Bocha describes it as a visual treat: "It's a spectacular sport, very striking, very beautiful to watch." He believes this weekend will be an unprecedented experience: "Nothing like this has ever been seen in Spain, neither in terms of the event's importance nor the individual skill level of the pairs."