Mauricinho (beach soccer)

Mauricio Pereira Braz de Oliveira (born 9 December 1989), known better as Mauricinho, is a Brazilian beach soccer player who plays as a forward. He won the 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup representing Brazil and claimed the Silver Ball (second best player) award at the competition; he has also appeared at three other World Cups (2015, 2019, 2021). In addition, he was named the best player in the world at the 2017 Beach Soccer Stars awards.

Career
Mauricinho began playing beach soccer competitively in 2010; he was spotted by Brazilian beach soccer legend, Júnior Negão, playing with friends on Copacabana Beach and was subsequently invited to play for Vasco da Gama.

He was first called up to the Brazilian national team in 2012. Mauricinho began to thrive under the leadership of coach Gilberto Costa, post-2015. This rise peaked in 2017 when he was voted by fellow players and coaches as the best player in the world; this followed being declared the second best player of that year's World Cup in the Bahamas in which he scored a brace in Brazil's win in the final over Tahiti. He was also the top scorer in Beach Soccer Worldwide competitions that year, with 54 goals.

He made his 100th appearance for Brazil in an 8–2 win against Oman at the 2019 World Cup.

As well as continuing to play for Vasco da Gama and winning the Copa Libertadores with the club, outside of Brazil, as is typical of top beach soccer players, Mauricinho has played for numerous clubs in Europe. In 2017, he joined top Portuguese side, Braga, and immediately won the Euro Winners Cup (EWC). In 2018, he switched to Russian rivals Kristall. Reaching the 2018 EWC final against his former Iberian club, he missed the crucial attempt in the penalty shootout, handing Braga the victory. He redeemed himself in the 2020 edition when, in a repeat of the 2018 final, Mauricinho scored to help Kristall become European champions.

In the immediate aftermath of Brazil's quarter-final defeat to Senegal at the 2021 World Cup, Mauricinho announced that he would be retiring from the national team, claiming that it "needs some new blood". However, the decision proved short-lived, as he took his place in new coach Marco Octavio's first call-up in May 2022.

Statistics
Note: Some of the sources of these statistics may have counted an appearance when the player was actually an unused substitute.


 * County


 * Club

Honours
The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major international honours Mauricinho has achieved:

Country

 * FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
 * Winner (1): 2017
 * World Beach Games
 * Winner (1): 2019
 * Intercontinental Cup
 * Winner (2): 2016, 2017
 * CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup
 * Winner (3): 2015, 2017, 2019
 * Copa América
 * Winner (1): 2016
 * Mundialito
 * Winner (2): 2016, 2017
 * South American Beach Games
 * Winner (1): 2019
 * South American Beach Soccer League
 * Winner (2): 2017, 2018

Club

 * Euro Winners Cup
 * Winner (3): 2017, 2020, 2021
 * Runner-up (1): 2018
 * Euro Winners Challenge
 * Winner (1): 2018
 * Copa Libertadores
 * Winner (2): 2016, 2017

Individual

 * FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (1):
 * Silver Ball: 2017


 * Beach Soccer Stars (2):
 * World's best player: 2017
 * World dream team: 2017


 * Mundialito (1):
 * Top scorer: 2017


 * Euro Winners Cup (4):
 * Best player: 2017, 2018, 2020, 2021


 * Copa Libertadores (1):
 * Best player: 2016