From a counterculture to a commercial recovery: street soccer, an alternative football victim of its own success

Par Radosław Leniarski (Gazeta Wyborcza)

In two weeks, the World Cup will begin in the United States and, here in Los Angeles, that will mean encountering a phenomenon that the entirely commercialized FIFA and its ultra-rich global football have never really encountered: street soccer, a rebellious, anti-elitist, social and a little wild urban phenomenon. Here, everything happens spontaneously. The teams are formed as in the past in Polish building courtyards and the matches are played for free. Best of all, anyone can participate.

The players wear fakes, their shorts pulled down far too low, and take pride in a successful little bridge, a dazzling hook or a perfectly executed sombrero shot. They don’t care about the football of the big federations and big groups. It’s protest football, alternative, anti-Trump: parking lot football. A true football socialism.

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