Floorball is one of the sports in The World Games (TWG) 2022, which takes place from 7th–17th July in Birmingham, AL, USA. Switzerland qualified to TWG based on their result in the Men’s World Floorball Championships 2020.
Manuel Maurer is a player with a long career in the Swiss national team. He has represented Switzerland in four Men’s World Floorball Championships (WFC), in several Euro Floorball Tours and international tournaments. In Switzerland, Maurer has represented Floorball Köniz and he is currently playing in the Swedish Super League with Växjö IBK. But the floorball career of Maurer would have been very different if he did decide to focus on another sport instead.
— I started playing floorball when I was 11 years old, that’s quite late for other players that play the same age as me. But the story behind is that when I was young, it was the question between football or floorball. I was always outside since I was four or five years old, I was playing all the time but I didn’t really know if I should start a one thing because I knew if I would decide to start with either one of the sports that I will keep on doing it for the rest of my life.
As we all know, the final decision was floorball. And it was also Maurer’s older brother that made this decision easier for him:
— So, the thing is my brother who is six years older, he was playing floorball already and he always let me play with his friends so that was quite cool if you are five or six years old to play with the older ones and I think this really was the point where I decided that it will be floorball and to say at this day, it was quite a good decision I think.
Indeed. Maurer has won two Swiss championship titles, two Swiss SuperCup titles and one Swiss Cup title with Köniz. In addition, he has two WFC bronze medals. In Sweden, he won the Svenska Cup with Växjö. Maurer is also one of the players who has played floorball in The World Games. Switzerland took home silver from TWG 2017, the first time floorball was included in the official sport programme and one of the medal sports.
— The World Games are for sure really important for floorball because we do know that there are just some countries playing floorball it’s not like it’s a sport that is played all over the world but still, if we have this opportunity to show how cool floorball is because we do know why we play it, because we love it and it’s a really, really great sport. So this opportunity to show the world how cool it is to play floorball is a really big thing so it’s really important for us to be able to be there in the US and show the world how much fun it is to play floorball.
There is one big difference between floorball at The World Games and World Floorball Championships: it is how often players have the possibility to play at TWG compared to WFC.
— The floorball games at The World Games will be quite a thing to remember because unlike the world championships that take place every two years, it’s just like the Olympics or equal that just takes place every four years. So you don’t get a chance to play many games at The World Games, so if you get a chance to be there and play, you really need to enjoy it and give your best because it won’t come that fast again.
Learn more about Maurer’s floorball career and his expectations towards TWG 2022 in Birmingham:
Road to The World Games is a series of interviews with floorball stars who are getting ready for the 2022 edition of TWG. The interviews are created by Adam Troy.
