The terms street football and street soccer (American and Canadian English) encompass a number of informal varieties of

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. These informal pick up games do not necessarily follow the requirements of a formal game of football, such as a large

field Field may refer to: Expanses of open ground * Field (agriculture), an area of land used for agricultural purposes * Airfield, an aerodrome that lacks the infrastructure of an airport * Battlefield * Lawn, an area of mowed grass * Meadow, a grass ...

, field markings, goal apparatus and corner flags, eleven players per team, or match officials ( referee and assistant referees). Many renowned professional players have learned to play football on the street, including the likes of

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a ...

, Pelé,

Giuseppe Meazza Giuseppe "Peppino" Meazza (; 23 August 1910 – 21 August 1979), also known as il Balilla, was an Italian football manager and player. Throughout his career, he played mainly for Inter Milan in the 1930s, scoring 242 goals in 365 games for the ...

, Éamon Dunphy, Eusebio,

Dejan Savićević Dejan Savićević ( cyrl, Дејан Савићевић, ; born 15 September 1966) is a Montenegrin former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Since 2004, he has been the president of the Montenegrin Football Association (FSCG), cu ...

, and

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...

, among others.

Background

Street football is more similar to beach football and

futsal Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

than to

. Often the most basic of set-ups will involve just a ball with a wall or fence used as a goal, or items such as clothing being used for goalposts (hence the phrase "

jumpers Jumper or Jumpers may refer to: Clothing * Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater **A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United Stat ...

for goalposts"). The phrase was used by

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently re ...

in his 2015 documentary '' Jumpers for Goalposts: Live at Wembley Stadium'' as a nod to playing the concerts at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

, the "home of football." Street football play

In some cases, a standard ball is not available and street football depends on a ball made out of garbage, such as discarded plastic.

Handwalla Bwana Handwalla Bwana (born June 25, 1999) is a Somali professional footballer who plays for Memphis 901 on loan from Nashville SC of Major League Soccer. Early life Bwana was born in Mombasa, Kenya but spent six years of his childhood at a refug ...

, describing street football in the

Kakuma Kakuma is a town in northwestern Turkana County, Kenya. It is the site of a UNHCR refugee camp, established in 1992. The population of Kakuma town was 60,000 in 2014, having grown from around 8,000 in 1990. In 1991, the camp was established to ho ...

refugee camp said "We used to make a garbage ball. We used to go through the garbage cans and make as much soccer ball as we could" and attributed use of the garbage ball to being better with his feet.

has said "Footballers from the street are more important than trained coaches." The ease of playing these informal games on the streets and open spaces make football the most popular sport in the world. Street football is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where games such as

Headers and Volleys The terms street football and street soccer (American and Canadian English) encompass a number of informal varieties of association football. These informal pick up games do not necessarily follow the requirements of a formal game of footbal ...

and Wembley Singles are popular throughout.

Video games

In 2005, video game publisher

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the ...

introduced ''

FIFA Street ''FIFA'', also known as ''FIFA Football'' and to be rebranded as ''EA Sports FC'' from 2023, is a series of association football video games developed and released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. As of 2011, the ''FIFA'' fr ...

'', a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

based on street football and

freestyle football Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governin ...

. ''FIFA Street'' series focuses on flair, style and trickery, reflecting the cultures of street football and freestyle football played in streets and backlots across the world. In 2019, Electronic Arts added a Volta gameplay mode to

FIFA 20 ''FIFA 20'' is a football simulation video game published by Electronic Arts as part of the ''FIFA'' series. It is the 27th installment in the series and was released on 27 September 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nint ...

. It shares similarities to the FIFA Street series and has a storyline of a street football player playing through the ranks, both making new friends and losing old ones along the way.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Street Football Football Association football variants

Background

Video games

See also

References