The eight inspiring eight thousand: creating Portugal’s life champions
By Rebecca Corbett
|Gonçalo Santos Image: Joana Freitas
A lot has happened since 2008, there have been four World Cups, four US presidents and 14 Homeless World Cups. For social work graduate Gonçalo Santos, 2008 was the year he joined CAIS as an intern and was asked to get involved in the Portuguese outfit’s fledgling street football programme.
Gonçalo has outlasted all the presidents and sixteen years later is still at CAIS. He’s now at the helm – leading an established nationwide football programme which operates in sixteen districts and hundreds of municipalities, reaching 1,592 youngsters and young people in 2024.
So, what’s kept this social worker going and kept him working in sport?
For Gonçalo, it’s simple; “the pitch offers a safe place for people to open up,” he adds “traditional set ups are not that friendly, that’s why myself and my team keep going. We understand the impact we were having was bigger than we would ever imagine.”
The ‘waterfall’ effect is something that Gonçalo is passionate about, and it’s something he sees every year at the Homeless World Cup, as players can realise their dream and represent their country.
“Eight [players] come, but those eight will impact eight hundred, eight thousand and so on. We bring people here that need to become champions. Regardless of the sports results, they will become life champions. They will show everyone in their communities that it’s possible to overcome adverse conditions; ‘did you ever think you’d see me playing football on a global stage? My match being broadcast by FIFA+? If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you.’”
The FIFA partnership, Gonçalo adds is “a major add-on for the players motivation and self-esteem because it allows them to portray themselves as heroes – which they are – to everybody.”
“We don’t have 600, 800,1,000 beneficiaries from this, we have hundreds of thousands, because the impact that these people will have in their communities is mind-blowing. I would dare to say it’s even bigger than the direct impact they have here.”
For Gonçalo, the traditional models of social work can be a barrier for young people, asking people to talk about their next steps in an office, simply doesn’t have the same appeal as inviting people to play football. He explains their format using football means time and again young people, without even noticing, enrol themselves in a “positive progression pathway” and go on to make major changes in their lives. This all starts with a kick about on the football pitch.
Many of the young people that Gonçalo and the team at CAIS are working with are facing discrimination, from racism and xenophobia to geographical discrimination based on where they’ve grown up. While Gonçalo explains, certain things have improved in Portugal since he graduated such as more people living in social housing, there are some issues which remain: “The misconception in Europe is that if you end illegal settlements and you put everyone in government housing, the problems that characterise illegal settlements disappear. They don’t – abuse, violence, racism, xenophobia, drug trafficking, addiction – they are all still there, they’re just not so visible.”
|”Everyone can dream about it” Image: Travis Torres
For many of the players who represented Portugal at the Seoul 2024 Homeless World Cup, these are day to day struggles – either for them personally or in their communities.
For Gonçalo, the Homeless World Cup gives players a chance to escape “where they live 365 days per year and allows them to live 20 days (with the training camp) in a positive lifestyle, with a positive experience.”
The make-up of the Portuguese team is carefully considered; “everybody can dream about it – we don’t bring the eight players from the team that wins the national championships, we bring the eight players from eight different teams with different capacities, abilities, different life stories. Some people here they are more lost, others are at the end of that journey, and they will inspire their teammates to start that journey.”
|Image: Anita Milas
It’s the second time Portugal have brought a mixed-gender team to the Homeless World Cup – with six male players, and two female players – reflecting the gender ratios of the year-round programmes. But Gonçalo adds, there are more and more female participants joining all the time. So maybe in years to come, it will be closer to 50 / 50. What they all have in common is that they will return to Portugal as heroes.
“What we want to see is more people seeing the impact of sport and arts and culture, you can get more impact than if you stay in the same traditional set ups. I think that’s the reason behind Mel Young’s original idea twenty years ago. Twenty years down the road, it still makes sense, the impact is bigger than ever, and we only need to scale it up.”
Words: Rebecca Corbett
Images: Joana Freitas, Anita Milas, Travis Torres