Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Fri Mar 25, 2005 6:32 pm

I was having an interesting discussion with a mate of mine yesterday with regards to playing football as a kid. What was interesting was that my mate used to play on the streets when he was growing up where as I used to go down the local park and play every night.

Well known Street footballers from the modern day include the likes of Gerrard, Fowler, Rooney and Carragher.

Well known Park footballers include the likes of Michael Owen, David Beckham and Gary Neville.

Learning their trade in the streets, appears to me to be the way most Brazilians learn their trade. Being on the streets you learn all kinds of tricks and unorthodox tactics. Whereas the park footballer who learnt their trade in a local park will tend to be more orthodox, and stick to standard approaches.

The street footballers normally come from a rough area, so will been pushed around and toughened up, they can handle themselves very well. If a street footballer has a conflict with a park footballer, the street footballer will almost always win.

One thing that's interesting with the 4 Scouse Street footballers I have pointed out above, is that they all have Irish surnames, it's well known in Liverpool that the Irish immigrants moved into the poorer areas, in general it is still true that the areas of the city with the highest density of Irish surnames are the poorest, this is where street football is most likely to occur, it can be a long way to the nearest park.

Whereas out of the park footballers I've mentioned, Owen is from Wales, he had plenty of access to fields, I know Beckham is not from a built up area, he had plenty of access to parks, I assume it was the same with Gary Neville.

Anyway, which players do you think or know are street footballers, and which ones are park footballers, it would be interesting to see what you guys come up with!

Also, which cities have the biggest street football communities, it is well know that lots of street football is played in Liverpool, but what about Manchester and London? In most streets in London they wouldn't tolerate ball games! For example, I was born in the Liverpool area and used to play lots of street football, but when I was 8 I moved to the South of England, people didn't tolerate street football in the South, neighbours and passers-by constantly tried to stop us!

Just a thought like.

by **Fowler_E7** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:05 am

most kids play both types of football, i very much doubt that Fowler, Rooney co never played on a grass pitch when they were young.

by **1234ram** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 11:43 am

street football for me :blues:

by **Juventino** » Wed May 04, 2005 2:21 pm

I quote Fowler :blues:

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