A community in the outskirt of Honiara called Matariu sometimes is known for all the wrong reasons but on the upside of the coin, Matariu has an abundance of talents in sport and music.
Predominately settled by Kwarae people from Malaita province, Matariu has had produced a wealth of futsal talents for the Solomon Islands national futsal team commonly referred to as Solomon Kurukuru.
Francis Lafai paved the way for his peers as one of the original members of the Kurukuru team that represented the Solomon Islands at the Brazil FIFA Futsal World Cup in 2008.
Lafai returned home to inspire a new generation of Kurukuru players who follow in his footsteps to wear the national colours.
Beside custodian David Lafai and Marlon Sia, the Mana brothers Junior, Elis, and Benjamin are the current familiar names continue to carry the torch for the Matariu community.
The elder brother, Elis made his name in football with the national U-17 in 2017 who were 90 minutes away from a historic World Cup berth in Tahiti.
Elis made an upturn in futsal after catching the eye of former national coach Jerry Sam to earn a place in the provisional squad before earning a ticket to the qualifiers last year with the famous Kurukuru side.
Playing futsal at the age of ten, Junior led the Junior Kurukuru side to a first-ever OFC Youth Futsal Championship in Auckland, New Zealand in 2017, and captain the future stars at the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Younger brother Benjamin didn’t make the Junior Kurukuru side for the Youth Olympics but a recent rise in form saw the 18-year-old won back-to-back golden boot awards at the OFC Futsal Champions League and the recent SIPA Futsal Championship.
