At age 35, Lesly St Fleur knows that his time as a player is coming to an end soon. The man is a Bahamas legend, serving as the national team’s all-time top scorer on grass and sand. One would be hard-pressed to find a more decorated beach soccer player not only in the Caribbean, but also in the Concacaf region.

When the calendar ticks over into 2025, it could well mark St Fleur’s final chance at a FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup™, with the tournament to take place in the Seychelles next May. To get there, Bahamas will need to first qualify via the Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship.

Having participated in just one global showpiece back in 2017, when Bahamas served as hosts, St Fleur is hopeful that a new group of youngsters can take the sport forward in his country and yield one final appearance in the big dance.

What is the latest with the Bahamas beach soccer national team?
Lesly St Fleur: We just got finished playing our World Cup qualifiers for grass, so we haven’t started preparing yet for beach qualifying. We have our beach soccer summer league here in the Bahamas, so most of the players on the national team will be playing in that. The summer league will basically be our training until we come together as one to prepare for next year.

How are you still able to balance playing both beach and grass?
I’m basically used to it. Once you play on beach and then go to grass, it gives you a boost of speed, so going to grass from beach makes you faster and that experience makes it easier for you. Your experience is there and it keeps you focused. I’m able to balance them because I’m kind of short and I know my limits. I know how my body reacts to the two surfaces.

What is the future of beach soccer in Bahamas?
Our main objective is to get younger players excited about beach soccer. Our national team right now is full of veterans, so we’re trying to build it for the younger guys so when the older guys leave, we can bring up the youth and make it a young team. It’s really hard, but we’re working on it. The summer league that we’re putting on now, we’ll see how it goes and see if we can get younger players to be more interested to be coming out for the national-team training. We’ll see how it feels and see where it goes from there. We need that 100 per cent.

What does it mean to you to wear the Bahamas shirt in beach soccer?
Putting on that shirt means you are ready to go to battle for your country, you’re going to defend your country. To me it feels good. Every time I’m putting on the shirt and singing the national anthem, that’s where the motivation comes from. There’s just a happiness hearing your national anthem and singing it out loud. I’m always proud to be representing my country.

What was it like walking out for the first game at the Beach Soccer World Cup in Bahamas?
It was the first time our country hosted a World Cup. It was just happiness and joy. Walking out through the tunnel to go out to the [pitch], you just feel like, ‘I’m here. I’ve been working for it and now I’m finally here’. It was happiness for me. We were in a group stage playing against big teams and knew we had to go out there and hopefully come away with a win. It didn’t happen, but it was a pleasure walking out in a new stadium which they had just finished building. We were hosting, and then to be playing in it, you couldn’t get better than that.

What were your emotions scoring your country’s first World Cup goal just 20 seconds into the first match?
I was happy, I got my first goal and then I said, ‘Ok, we’re here’. Every time I play the game, I just really enjoy it. You have to have fun. Football is all about having fun and that’s what happened. My first free-kick I said, ‘I just have to score’, and then it happened, so yeah, I think the word is happiness. I felt such great happiness.

You won your final group-stage game. How rewarding was that?
We were playing Ecuador and I said that we can’t leave this group without getting a win. I spoke to the players and said, ‘Guys, this is our last game, let’s go out there and have fun. Let’s enjoy the game and put them away when we have the chance. Defend together, attack together and communicate with each other.’ The fire was in everybody’s eyes that night. We went out there and did what we had to do and came out with the win. Everyone went home happy.

What are your fondest memories of that World Cup?
It was good to watch some of the other countries. I follow Brazil a lot, both on beach and grass, and they make it look so enjoyable, they are just out there having fun. They keep the ball up, they’re so skillful, they’re a great team. But to see other teams play in the Bahamas was great. They all loved it because it was a new stadium, the sand was new, the goals, everyone was there having fun competing. There were fans from all the countries and it was such a great vibe. People were there watching the games, going to the beach, just really enjoying themselves. It was a joyful event.