Homeless World Cup: 'We want to do something special'

Londoners walking from the underground station to the Powerleague football pitches in Shoreditch pass a makeshift bedroom under a railway bridge: a damp mattress, an empty wooden crate and scraps of cardboard strewn across the concrete. It's one of countless signs of street homelessness in the shadows of the financial center of one of the world's richest cities.

On those small football pitches, a young team are being put through their paces, with their Scottish coach barking out instructions and encouragement. They all wear red shirts with "England" emblazoned across the front. But these aren't replicas of the Euro 2024 finalists, this is a different kind of England team. One soon to play the Homeless World Cup in South Korea.

Among those playing is Mikiale Tsegay, a refugee from Ethiopia. Like his teammates, he got involved through the Street Soccer Foundation, a charity which helps put together the England side for the tournament on top of its work to help the homeless through football. Tsegay was forced to flee his homeland in 2021 as a result of a brutal civil war, which eventually took the lives of more than 500,000 people.

"It was a very, very hard time in my life. I didn't know where my family were, alive or dead," Tsegay told DW. "I lost my big brother. I lost so many of my friends."

Hotel not a home

When he arrived in the United Kingdom, the government had not yet taken a decisive position on the war and Tsegay struggled to make his asylum case.

"When I told them what was happening, they couldn't believe me, it was very difficult. After two years, things changed and I got some protections. But still, it was very hard staying in the hotel and having no connection to home, the internet was down there and there was no way to communicate," he said.

The type of hotel Tsegay lived in for two years came under attack in the UK's recent race riots. Though the word "hotel" clearly conjures images of luxury for some, the reality is that in the UK people in Tsegay's position will often be living on £8 (€9.50/$10.50) a day and eight to a room. The accommodations lack even the most basic cooking facilities, and it's as far from a holiday as most people can imagine. 

Tsegay isn't the only refugee representing England in Seoul later this month. But the team also has a number of native players, who have found themselves homeless for a wide variety of reasons. There is no international definition of homelessness, but the UK definitions include rooflessness (street sleeping), houselessness (temporary accommodation) and living in insecure or inadequate housing. Research from housing charity Shelter found that there were 309,000 people without a home last Christmas in England, a 14% rise on the previous year.

Increasing homelessness in rich, Western nations has deep structural, economic and political roots and the way out, if there is one, varies from person to person. But for England manager, Craig McManus, it was football — Street Soccer and the Homeless World Cup in particular.

Football a vehicle for change

Back in 2015, the death of his father, combined with drug and alcohol issues, led to McManus losing his car, job and house and sleeping rough on the streets of Edinburgh in winter.

"I was involved talking to so many agencies, asking me loads of questions: 'Are you sober, are you clean?' Then there was someone saying: 'What's your name mate? Put on this bib and come and play football,'" he said of his early interactions with Street Soccer. "For the first time in years and years and years, I felt human again. I felt part of something. Nobody asked me questions, but I knew that I could speak to them if I needed to, and we built trust. And over the piece I managed to get the rehab, got sober, got clean and come out with a different mindset."

McManus ended up playing for Scotland in a home World Cup in Glasgow in 2016 and now works at second division side Middlesbrough, along with his managerial role. He pinpoints that World Cup as a turning point for him, and has seen the same thing in others since. "Sometimes it's a physical change, they'll just stand with their chest out a little bit more and their shoulders back. It might also be that they communicate more," he said.

For the manager, neither the World Cup nor the football is really the point of all this. It purely serves as a vehicle to get people in vulnerable positions into a space where they can find help, whether that be through referrals to services, chats with McManus and other coaches who have been through the program or just having fun in a safe and healthy environment.

Safe space and trip to Seoul

"Something that's really important to us is that we build trusted, non-authoritative relationships, so they can trust us, but we're not an authority in their lives. We're with them side by side. Once we've created that, it's really how we empower them to make that change," said McManus.

That change has already started for Tsegay. Though his living situation is still precarious, he's out of the hotel and has had trials at semi-professional clubs around London. He's determined to honor the memory of his late brother, who he said always pushed him to persist with football.

"What we want is to do something special," said Tsegay. "We want to go there and show ourselves that you can play in any clubs, there are so many pro players that came up through playing on the streets. I hope we bring something special to England national team. Hopefully, football's coming home," he added, with a smile.

The Homeless World Cup will be held in Seoul, South Korea, from September 21-28. It will be the first homeless World Cup in Asia and is set to feature 56 teams from 44 nations and 450 players.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding