Boys playing street football in Cairo, Egypt
Street football, or street soccer, is an informal variation on the game of association football, typically played in outdoor urban settings such as streets, playgrounds and car parks. The term encompasses a variety of different formats, which do not necessarily follow the requirements of a formal game of football, such as a large field, field markings, goal apparatus and corner flags, eleven players per team, or match officials (referee and assistant referees). Street football is often played as a pick-up game, without fixed timing and with players joining and leaving at any point. Many international professional players learned to play football on the street, including Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Pelé, Giuseppe Meazza, Eamon Dunphy, Eusébio, Dejan Savićević, and Cristiano Ronaldo. This 2017 photograph shows boys playing street football on al-Mu'izz Street in Cairo, Egypt, by the exterior wall of the al-Hakim Mosque.Photograph credit: Mohamed Hozyen Ahmed; edited by Bammesk