Salvador Ardil Navarro (born 17 April 1988), better known as Chiky Ardil, is a Spanish

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or beasal, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand. Whilst football has been played informally on beaches, the introduction of ''beach soccer'' was an a ...

player who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He has appeared at two editions of the

FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup is an international beach soccer competition contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport's global governing body. The tournament was preceded by the ''Beach Soccer World Champions ...

(

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and

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) representing the Spain national team; at the European qualifying tournament for the latter, he won the MVP award. His younger brother, David, also plays for Spain.

Career

Salvador believes his nickname "Chiky" originates from when he was a toddler, and considerably smaller than his three other siblings. "Chiky" is a truncating of the Spanish word "chiquitín", meaning tiny. He began playing futsal aged five before quickly switching to association football under the wing of his older brother, Raúl. Chiky ultimately established himself as a footballer in the third tier of Spanish football, having spells at multiple clubs including Lorca Deportiva,

CD Bala Azul Club Deportivo Bala Azul is a football team based in Mazarrón in the autonomous community of Region of Murcia. Founded in 1948, the team plays in Tercera División - Group 13. Their stadium is the Estadio ''Playa Sol'', which has a capacity of ...

Granada 74 Granada 74 Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Granada 74, was a Spanish football team based in Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It has not registered in any competition since 2009, it held home matches at ''Estadio La V ...

Rayo Majadahonda Club de Fútbol Rayo Majadahonda () is a Spanish football team based in Majadahonda, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1976 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home games at '' Estadio Cerro del Espino'', wi ...

Pinatar CF Pinatar Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in San Pedro del Pinatar, in the autonomous community of Region of Murcia. Founded in 1965, it plays in Tercera División - Group 13, holding home games at ''Estadio José Antonio Pérez'' ...

and

Águilas CF Águilas Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team in Águilas, in the autonomous community of Murcia. Founded in 1925 and dissolved in 2010, it played its last season ( 2009–10) in Segunda División B – Group 2, holding home games a ...

. Chiky eventually accepted an invite from friends to partake in a beach soccer tournament in his hometown of Mazarrón. Having enjoyed it, Chiky and his team began taking part regularly in tournaments in Murcia,

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...

and Valencia. In 2013, after a tournament in Andalusia, he was called up to the Murcian regional team. His first tournament with the team was a success, in which he scored 18 goals; Spain coach Joaquín Alonso was impressed and called Chiky up to the national team. Chiky debuted for Spain at stage 5 of the

2013 Euro Beach Soccer League The 2013 Euro Beach Soccer League (''EBSL'') is an annual European competition in beach soccer. The competitions allows national teams to compete in beach soccer in a league format over the summer months. Each season ends with a Superfinal, decidi ...

in Moscow, however he was ultimately not selected for the 2013 World Cup later that year. In 2014, Chiky was called back to the national team following a runners-up finish with Bala Azul in the Spanish National Beach Soccer League. After qualifying for the 2015 World Cup, Chiky received a special reception by the Mayor of Mazarrón at the town hall. Since 2017, Chiky has found himself amongst the awards: his overhead kick against Greece during the

2017 Euro Beach Soccer League The 2017 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) was the 20th edition of the annual, premier European competition in beach soccer contested between men's national teams, in a league and play-off format. This season teams continued to take part in two div ...

was nominated for best goal of the year, whilst he claimed his first individual international award in 2018 when he was top scorer at the Nazaré stage of the

2018 Euro Beach Soccer League The 2018 Euro Beach Soccer League (EBSL) was the 21st edition of the ''Euro Beach Soccer League'', the annual, premier competition in European beach soccer contested between men's national teams. It was organised by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW), ...

; he was nominated for best beach soccer goal of the year again in 2019. In 2021 he was deemed MVP of the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup, something he called "a landmark moment" in his career. He was subsequently received by the Mayor of Mazarrón again before leaving to play for Spain at the 2021 World Cup; at said tournament, he was Spain's top scorer with six goals. He continues to play football in the Spanish third tier, for Mazarrón FC. He claims he has had to make "a lot of sacrifice in order to be able to play both sports, including performing double training sessions, one for each sport. He claims he will give up football to focus on beach soccer when Mazarrón FC no longer want his service.

Statistics

;Country ;Club

Honours

The following is a selection, not an exhaustive list, of the major honours Chiky has achieved with Spain:

Team

* UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup **Winner (1):

* Intercontinental Cup **Runner-up (1):

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* Euro Beach Soccer League **Runner-up (2):

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* European Games: **Silver medal (1):

Euro Beach Soccer Cup The Euro Beach Soccer Cup (EBSC), originally known as the ''European Pro Beach Soccer Championships'' until 2004, was a biennial (previously annual) beach soccer competition contested between European men's national teams, organised by Beach Socc ...

: **Winner (1):

Individual

* CONMEBOL qualifiers for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup (1): **Best player: 2021 * Euro Beach Soccer League (1): **Regular season stages: ***Top scorer: 2018(1) **Top scorer:intercontinental cup Dubai 2021 **Mvp :Mundialito gran canarias * Beach Soccer Stars **Top 10 best goals of the year (2): 2017, 2019

References

External links

Salvador Ardil Navarro
profile at Beach Soccer Worldwide {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardil, Chiky 1988 births Living people Spanish footballers Spanish beach soccer players Association football forwards European Games silver medalists for Spain European Games medalists in beach soccer Beach soccer players at the 2015 European Games Beach soccer players at the 2019 European Games People from Mazarrón Sportspeople from the Region of Murcia