Street football, or street soccer, is an informal variation on the game of
association football, typically played in outdoor urban settings such as streets, playgrounds and car parks. The term encompasses a variety of different formats, which do not necessarily follow the requirements of a formal game of football, such as a large
field, field markings, goal apparatus and corner flags, eleven
players per team, or match officials (
referee and
assistant referees). Street football is often played as a
pick-up game, without fixed timing and with players joining and leaving at any point. Many international professional players learned to play football on the street, including
Diego Maradona,
Johan Cruyff,
Pelé,
Giuseppe Meazza,
Eamon Dunphy,
Eusébio,
Dejan Savićević, and
Cristiano Ronaldo. This 2017 photograph shows boys playing street football on
al-Mu'izz Street in
Cairo, Egypt, by the exterior wall of the
al-Hakim Mosque.
Photograph credit: Mohamed Hozyen Ahmed; edited by Bammesk