South East soccer star Sam Mills has kicked a personal goal, representing Australia in Futsal (indoor soccer) at the Virtus Global Games in Vichy, France.

The games take place this week and are the world’s largest elite sports event for athletes with an intellectual disability seeing over a thousand competitors from more than 50 countries perform.

Similar to the Olympic Games the international event takes place every four years and includes an opening and closing ceremony.

Unlike soccer, futsal is played indoors on a smaller area with five players a side at a faster pace leading to more opportunity for goal scoring.

Mills plays mainstream soccer for the Apollo Soccer Club but has been playing futsal since 2015 when he first tried out for the state team.

This is his second time competing at the games after being selected to play at the INAS Global Games in Brisbane in 2019.

Mills said he was feeling a mix of emotions prior to the trip.

“I am pretty positive, I have been before,” he said.

“I am a bit nervous because it is overseas, I have never been over there before.

“It is going to be a new experience, new culture for me to enjoy.”

Mills was selected to try out for the Australian team following his performance at the nationals in Melbourne earlier in the year.

“I went to Sydney for the tryouts, and we did about seven and a half hours worth of very intense training over two days,” he said.

Australia will play against Portugal, Spain and France before the winning teams advance to the finals.

Mills said he is excited to represent his country on the global stage.

“Getting out there and representing my country is a very big thing,” he said.

“I am very excited to wear the badge with honour.

“That is all we can do- try our best, communicate out there and hopefully score some goals for Australia, make our country proud.

“Thank you to Apollo, mum, dad and my friends.”