Street football

A group of boys playing football near Al-Hakim Mosque in Cairo, Egypt
A group of men on a concrete football pitch in Tripoli, Libya
A boy dribbling on an urban football pitch in Soweto, South Africa

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.[1] 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). Often street football is played as a pick-up game, without fixed timing and with players joining and leaving at any point.[2][3] Many renowned footballers stated that they learned to play football on the street, including the likes of Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Pelé, Giuseppe Meazza, Éamon Dunphy, Eusebio, Dejan Savićević, and Cristiano Ronaldo, among others.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ cs.yothin (6 February 2023). "THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STREET FOOTBALL, FREESTYLE FOOTBALL & URBANBALL FIGHT". URBANBALL. Retrieved 17 December 2023.
  2. ^ Meseguer, Pedro (November 7, 2016). "El fútbol callejero" (in Spanish). Alicante: Futbol Jobs. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  3. ^ "Fútbol Callejero: Historia, trucos, jugadas y mucho más" (in Spanish). 12 January 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  4. ^ Salmon, Ken (November 10, 2021). "Street soccer and the first teams of legendary players". 90soccer.com. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  5. ^ Croke, Ruaidhrí. "Ghosts and goalposts: The soul of street football in Dublin's Gloucester Diamond". The Irish Times.
  6. ^ Vlaisavljević, Luka (16 September 2018). "Željko i Dejo dobijaju grafit tamo gdje se dribling cijeni "više od života"" (in Serbian). Vijesti. Retrieved 7 May 2020.