Madrid, May 30 (EFE).– The streets have fallen silent and the ball locked away, but Spain’s futsal legend Julio García Mera is on a mission to bring back the barefoot joy and muddy magic of street football.
Mera, a two-time futsal world champion with Spain, a three-time European champion, former captain of Inter Movistar, a journalism graduate, and a partner at the company Lidesport, misses seeing children play in the streets where the ball has been placed “under arrest.”
In town squares across Spain, signs prohibit playing ball. Academies and summer camps enroll thousands of children, each in perfect uniform. But Julio hasn’t given up. Through his company, he has reached agreements with several Spanish town halls to promote street football.
So far, the project has gained traction in Valdemorillo and Robledo de Chavela (both in Madrid), and in Toro, a renowned wine-growing town with just 8,500 residents southeast of Zamora, known for its rich sporting and cultural life “I played a lot in the street when I was a kid. That’s what we did back then,” Carlos Rodríguez, Toro’s Councillor for Sports, told EFE.
Recalling his childhood, he said there were no courts and the street was where they all wanted to be.
When the proposal came to him, he “immediately thought of my childhood” when they would spend hours playing. “We made goals out of stones, jackets, or flip-flops. That’s how we played, and we were happy with very little.”
Rodríguez emphasized the lifelong benefits of street football. “These values, teamwork, cooperation, serve children throughout their lives.”
The driving force “The ball is under arrest. It’s been found guilty of playing with children and teenagers in the streets and public squares,” said García Mera. “That ball symbolizes the end of street football, that original, unstructured space where those of us from earlier generations learned the game.”
He said it was rare now to see kids playing outside for many reasons. “Sedentary lifestyles, video games, gated communities… And we modern parents, myself included, have played a part.”
He opined that parents now want kids to play on parquet courts or artificial turf, under LED lights, with certified referees, isotonic drinks, climacool gear.
“And, of course, a regulation ball. Everything must be regulated. No mixing.”
With a sense of nostalgia, he recalled that the days when the smallest kid on the block dared to take on the biggest player from a rival neighborhood were gone.
“The little guy no longer challenges the big guy from the rival neighborhood. Goals aren’t made from stacked stones. You hardly ever hear ‘next goal wins.’ The earth, the mud, and the puddles disappeared long ago.”
The raw, unfiltered joy of playing barefoot on uneven ground, of slipping in the mud, and chasing a ball through puddles, belongs to a past that feels distant now.
“Nobody plays in the street anymore. The ball has been imprisoned, locked away. Back in our day, when phones were dumb, we didn’t know much, but we knew one thing: the ball didn’t need to be kicked, but caressed. It didn’t need arrest, but freedom.” EFE
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