He was on the verge of a professional football career with Bayern Munich, having played with the likes of Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller, before choosing a new path at the age of 24, involving sports studies and a career as a futsal player.

And after scoring the first official international goal for Germany in October 2016, Timo Heinze went on to captain the team yesterday, when they lost 5-1 to hosts Georgia in their first ever qualifying match for a FIFA Futsal World Cup.

FIFA.com sat down for an interview with the 32-year-old, who has also written a successful book about his experiences in Bayern’s youth set-up.

FIFA.com: How do you feel after the defeat to Georgia? Timo Heinze: We can play better than we did yesterday, but we also need to recognise that they were a cut above us. The difference between the two teams was all too apparent, unfortunately. The important part though will be the next two matches.

You’re back in action today against Denmark... And it’s pretty much an eliminator for both teams. Anything we might have got out of Georgia would have been a bonus, but now the serious stuff begins with Denmark. We’re absolutely convinced that we can beat Denmark if we implement what we’ve discussed in terms of tactics.

Let’s go back to the beginning. After your time with Bayern, you took a break in Bali and wrote a book… It was something that I really wanted to do and it was a way of coming to terms with the end of my footballing career and the fact that I hadn’t made it as a pro. It wasn’t actually meant to be a book – it was just a way of processing things.

Are you still in touch with the likes of Thomas Muller and Mats Hummels? I’ve lost touch with Thomas, but that’s just the way things go. We always got on really well on the pitch but we were never close off it, which was always likely to be the case as we are from two totally different worlds. Mats on the other hand, I see him three of four times a year, I’m good friends with his brother and the three of us catch up now and again.

How did you come to play futsal? I just wanted to have some fun and carrying on playing in some form or other. We had a good coach who taught me a lot tactically, so it gradually started taking off. For years we hoped that a national team would be formed and I began to worry that it wouldn’t happen in my time as a player. When it became clear however that there would be a national team, it was my dream to be a part of it. And then for me to score the first goal was almost too good to be true.

What do you find so interesting about futsal? I played a lot of traditional indoor tournaments as a youngster, but futsal actually makes a lot more sense for me. You don’t have the walls and at lot less is left to chance, meaning that you have to actually play the ball the right way. A lot of the time in Germany, you hear the opposite – that the walls provide creativity. That’s true to a certain extent, but it bears no relation to the football you play outdoors.

You played as a fullback when you were a footballer, but in futsal you tend to be more of a goalscorer … Defensively I play at the base of the diamond, pretty much as the "last man", and yet strangely when I play indoors I’m a real goal threat – unlike when I used to play outdoors. Everything’s a lot nearer and as the last man, you can often come from deep and find yourself in space. The goals tended to come from me running onto the ball or making a run from deep, and I somehow got a flair for it – something that never really came about outdoors on a bigger pitch.

Germany is a great footballing nation but a veritable minnow when it comes to futsal… It’s only our third year so we’re playing catch-up – we’re a developing country at the moment. We’ve got a long way still to go before we make it to the top internationally. It’ll be a long journey, but it’s not impossible. In the last few months we’ve come on in leaps and bounds. Our aim is to make it through the first round [of FIFA World Cup qualifying] – even though that might sound strange, what with Germany being such a footballing superpower, it would represent a real success for us.

And what is the captain hoping for in terms of futsal in Germany? For it to be more open. I know very few people who try futsal and come away disappointed – we tend to get very good feedback. I’d like to see a Bundesliga with the corresponding infrastructure and more media attention. Futsal is an attractive spectator sport. If handball can be a spectator sport – and it certainly deserves to be – then so can futsal.