Growing up, football wasn’t something you went to. It was something that happened constantly, everywhere, with whoever was around.
Council estates, back streets, school playgrounds, parks - anywhere with space became a pitch. The goals were jumpers, lampposts, gaps between cars, or whatever the environment provided. The rules were negotiated, argued over, and adapted based on who was playing.
No adults. No coaches. Just endless hours with a ball until your legs burned, your mum called you for dinner, or the evening darkness brought the game to a premature end.
What We Had
The volume of children playing was staggering. In just a few streets, you could have dozens of kids within a few years of each other, all obsessed with football. If there wasn’t a game on your street, you walked to the next one. If that was quiet, you knew the park would be hosting a mammoth match.
It sounds crazy now, but childhood was just football, football, and more football.
And I loved every minute of it.
The Games We Invented
We played everything:
- Knockouts - last one standing wins
- Kerbsie - hitting the opposite kerb for points
- Heads and volleys - score only from crosses
- Wall ball - miss and you become goalkeeper
- Goalie to goalie - one touch to save, one touch to shoot from 20 yards
We weren’t fussy though. Most of the time we just played full matches - 8v8, 12v13, it didn’t matter as long as we were playing.
These matches went on for hours. You’d lose your best player to dinner or an errand for their parents. You’d argue over which team got the newcomer, when to rotate goalkeepers, the time for each half, whether it was a goal or not, when to rest, and when to continue tomorrow.
What We Learned Without Teaching
The hours spent with a tennis ball in the school playground developed technique, close control, and skill far more than any coach could.
It was passion and love for the game that drove us to train and compete with friends. Winning wasn’t an ugly word - we all wanted to compete with each other and ourselves to be better. More keep-ups. A new skill. Beating someone who beat you yesterday.
It was football heaven.
And there was no coach in sight.
If there had been, I don’t think we would have played. It wouldn’t have been as much fun.
What’s Changed
Nowadays, everything is formalised.
Children don’t play street football anymore - they attend sessions. They don’t explore with the ball - they follow instructions. They don’t negotiate rules with friends - adults impose them.
The unstructured hours have been replaced by structured minutes. The self-directed learning has been replaced by coach-directed teaching. The intrinsic motivation has been replaced by external organisation.
The Cost of Formalisation
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
“We coach before we look. We judge before we analyse. We play to win before we develop any techniques to play the game well.”
Modern youth football often prioritises results over development, instruction over exploration, and organisation over play. We’ve professionalised childhood football in ways that remove what made it developmentally powerful.
The children who became elite players from street football backgrounds had something modern academy players often lack:
- Thousands of hours of unstructured play - touches that no organised session can match
- Self-directed problem solving - no coach to ask, you figured it out
- Mixed-age competition - playing against older kids forced adaptation
- Intrinsic motivation - playing because you wanted to, not because it was scheduled
- Creativity through necessity - when the environment changes constantly, you must adapt
What Coaches Can Do
We can’t recreate street football. The world has changed, and we have to work within it.
But we can:
- Create more player-led moments - step back and let them solve problems
- Vary games constantly - different rules, different challenges, different constraints
- Reduce instruction - more playing, less talking
- Encourage exploration - praise creativity, not just correct execution
- Value the journey - development over results, especially with young players
The children of the street football era weren’t developed by coaching. They were developed by playing. Coaching can support development, but it should never replace the fundamental relationship between a child and a ball.
The Relationship That Matters Most
Before tactics, before positions, before team structures - there’s a child who loves kicking a ball.
That relationship is where everything starts. Nurture it, protect it, and give it space to grow.
The hours I spent exploring with a ball - challenging myself, competing with friends, inventing games - were invaluable. Not just for football, but for growing up. Those days taught me more than any organised session could.
I’m disappointed that my children and others won’t have that same experience. But I can try to create environments that capture some of what made it magical.
And so can you.
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