Northampton player helps team to win bronze at deaf futsal Champions League

Reece Drage from Northampton won bronze with Peterbrough Uniteds deaf futsal team at the European Deaf Champions League U-21 Futsal

Reece Drage, 16, helped Peterborough United’s under-21 deaf futsal team to become the first English side to win a medal at the tournament on Friday (October 5).

Andrew Palmer, chairman of the Peterborough United Foundation and founder of the deaf football project, said: “I’ve never been so wracked with nerves in my entire life.

“I could barely watch the last game but the team showed their mettle, left everything on the pitch and got what they deserved from it.

The Peterborough United deaf futsal team with their European Champions League medals

“I’m proud of the team for not just getting that far against the best on the continent, especially as futsal is much more established as a sport there, but for the quality of the performances and the effort they put in.”

Peterborough United overcame Torino and Bruxelles in the groups stages and beat the favourites and last year’s champions Real E Non Solo from Italy on penalties in a pulsating quarter-final.

But Posh narrowly succumbed to Hamburg 5-4 in the semi-final, who went on to lose to CDS Huelva from Spain in the final. The bronze medal was clinched on the final day of the tournament with another win over Torino in the third place playoff.

Peterborough United’s deaf football project was set up in 2013 and since then has won 5 national youth titles, a national under-21 title and finished runners-up in the 11-a-side south league last season.