Goals are nothing new for Georgi Hristov. The former Rowdies striker scored a franchise record 60 goals in six seasons with Tampa Bay.

Now retired, Hristov has a different goal.

He wants to create Tampa Bay’s first youth futsal league.

Futsal is a form of soccer that’s played on a hard court rather than a soccer pitch and with a small, harder, low-bounce ball. It’s played between two teams of five players, rather than 11 on 11.

Hristov, who used to play futsal himself, says the game is a great tool to help develop young soccer players.

“Futsal is something that is extremely beneficial for young soccer players,” said Hristov.

“It makes players have to make quicker decisions and there’s more touches on the ball. For example, a 40 minute futsal game, a player will have twice as many touches compared to a 90 minute soccer game.”

Some of the best soccer players in the world actually grew up playing futsal.

“Big players I can name like Neymar, Ronaldinho, [Lionel] Messi, [Christiano] Ronaldo, Kaka. Just to name few that benefited from it big time.”

Hristov says games will be played at 10 different locations spread across the tampa bay area and that the league can accommodate up to nearly 200 teams.

“The ages are U-9 to U-19, boys and girls,” said Hristov. “And if we can get eight teams per age group that would be great!”

The league will run from June through July. So it’s not only good way for kids to develop their soccer skills but it also gives them something to do indoors during the hot summer months.

“Being indoors is great, especially when it’s 95 degrees out with the humidity,” said Luis Garcia, whose son plays futsal. “It’s great for the footwork, the technical experience, it’s a much faster game, it’s more entertaining.”

Rowdies fans like Johnny Pericles say it’s great to have a former player like Hristov giving back to the kids in the local community.

“Good for him for doing that after a great career, I’m glad he stayed around here. With his name, his skill, and he used to play futsal and knows what it can bring to you so I think it’s good.”

Hristov was a goal scoring machine in his playing days.

But now, his goal is to help develop the next generation of soccer players in Tampa Bay.