15/09/2026
“Football with no substitutes’ bench.”
There was no place reserved for those who were considered less talented. No child travelled across town only to watch others play. If you arrived, you joined the game.
The teams were rarely equal, the rules changed whenever someone new appeared, and the pitch became smaller or larger depending on how many children were available. But there was always room for one more.
Nobody counted minutes. Nobody waited for permission to enter. You played until you were tired, rested for a moment beside the improvised goal, and then returned to the action.
The strongest players learned to play with the youngest. The youngest learned courage by facing the oldest. Everyone touched the ball, made mistakes, scored goals and experienced the joy of belonging.
Street football was not always fair or perfectly organised. But it offered children something increasingly precious: the opportunity to participate.
Today, we give children better pitches, better equipment and better coaching. Yet some still spend most of the game watching from the side.
Perhaps development begins with a simple principle we once understood naturally: children cannot fall in love with football from the substitutes’ bench.
Did everyone get to play in your childhood matches?
