Street Football: The Real Grassroots of the Beautiful Game by David Proudlove – Review
By Karl Hornsey
David Proudlove has already written two books assessing the impact of football clubs on their local communities, and this release builds on those, offering a series of fascinating insights into the roots of the game, and a real throwback to a different, simpler time. The fact that he’s managed this without any oversentimentality, and focused on the subject around the world, not just in the UK, marks this out as a fascinating journey and one that should have wide appeal.
When I first heard about this book, I did wonder whether there could be enough content to do the subject justice, but Proudlove has more than delivered, focusing on the past, present and future to give a rounded picture of ‘street’ football in all its connotations.
The football we know and still love today is as different as it possibly could be from when the sport started to become a phenomenon, and Proudlove chronicles the origins of the game to build up an idea of how basic football really is at heart, before touching on some of the weird and wonderful traditions that carried on for decades and even centuries.
He analyses the importance of shortened versions of the game and, crucially, sets football in a wider social context. Taking street football at its most literal, I can remember playing in the streets until the sun set, which may feel like a cliché, but it’s true, yet how often do we see that in the modern day? The lessons learned through childhood inspired many famous players, but times move on, and the author weaves his history from a societal point of view to help explain why things are now so different.
“Shaped by their upbringing”
Moving away from this country, there’s a focus on how football developed across the African continent and in Brazil, which is one nation renowned for how playing in the streets and on the beaches played such a pivotal role in the development of some of the best footballers ever to play the game.
I found all of this fascinating, but was then even more intrigued at a chapter focusing on some of the greatest players, who had that ‘street’ element about them. The likes of Pele, Cruyff, Zidane and Cantona, followed by the ‘last street footballer’, Wayne Rooney.
All of these talents were shaped by their upbringing and there’s a sense that things will never be the same again, with youngsters all trained and guided in a robotic way to conform to what’s expected these days. Hopefully that won’t be the case. Proudlove also makes this a deeply personal book, reflecting on his own upbringing in the Potteries and looks to the future, which gives a reflective ending to a fabulously interesting release.
Street Football: The Real Grassroots of the Beautiful Game by David Proudlove is published by Pitch Publishing
Karl’s love of writing was piqued at the age of eight, when he won a Blue Peter badge in an essay-writing competition. The location of said badge might be a mystery now, but the memory never fades. Hours spent writing about sport as a teenager, in pre-internet years when you had to make your entertainment, honed his skills, and Karl has worked in TV and radio listings at PA Media for 28 years, and the age of hybrid working means 50% of that can be at home listening to Classic FM and thinking about his next visit to his beloved Yorkshire Dales.
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