The 18th annual Homeless World Cup kicked off at Sacramento State this weekend, featuring amateur soccer players from Sacramento and across the globe who have struggled to find a permanent home or been displaced from their native country.
Organizers say the tournament gives participants a chance to build community and a better path forward, while raising awareness about homelessness worldwide. Sponsors and fundraising efforts have helped pay for the event.
This is the first Homeless World Cup held in the United States; previous host cities included Mexico City, Paris and Rio de Janeiro, among others. There are 28 countries fielding teams this year, including Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and Ukraine.
Delegations for each country represented in the 2023 Homeless World Cup walks in a parade to CSUS's Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. Saturday, July 8, 2023.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio
A member of the 2023 Homeless World Cup's Mexican delegation wears a luchador mask, July 8, 2023, in Sacramento, Calif.Andrew Nixon / CapRadioMatthew Williams, the tournament’s marketing director, says the week-long event “can be quite magical” for the players. “Friendships are formed.”
“Soccer is the platform this week,” he added. “But really the heroes are our players. The heroes are the people that have put their hand up and said ‘I’m struggling. Can I come and be a part of this?’”
For 24-year-old Sienna Jackson of Sacramento, the tournament is the culmination of years of practice on the soccer field and a long journey to housing stability.
Five years ago, Jackson says she lived “out in the streets,” in parks or sometimes on a friend’s couch. She later moved into a youth shelter, where she got connected to Street Soccer USA’s Sacramento chapter. The group organizes games for men and women living in shelters, for people in drug or alcohol treatment and survivors of domestic violence.
After playing with the local chapter for a few years and getting back on her feet, Jackson was invited to play for Team USA in this year’s Homeless World Cup.
She says the tournament brings people together.
“It gives people an outlet if they’re stressed, if they’ve had drug addiction, if they’ve had partner abuse, all that stuff,” said Jackson, who now has permanent housing. “They’re able to come and play a common game that’s known around the world.”
Sienna Jackson of the US Homeless World Cup team kicks the ball facing off against Finland on day one of tournament play Saturday, July 8, 2023.Andrew Nixon / CapRadioLisa Wrightsman helped found the local chapter of Street Soccer USA and serves as its managing director. After her college soccer career ended at Sacramento State, she says she became lost in a world “of drugs and alcohol and all kinds of stuff that I wasn’t prepared for.”
But like Jackson, she found a connection to soccer that changed her life. She was introduced to Street Soccer USA and later nominated to play for Team USA at the 2010 Homeless World Cup in Brazil.
“That experience changed me in a lot of ways,” Wrightsman added. “But it really motivated me to keep my sobriety journey knowing other good things could happen if I stayed sober and did that work.”
She says street soccer programs and the World Cup give people a chance to build skills that will benefit them, on and off the field.
The USA and Finland's women's teams face off for the first match of the 2023 Homeless World Cup hosted in Sacramento, Calif. Saturday, July 8, 2023.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio“You don’t have to become amazing at soccer,” Wrightsman said. “We just want you to stay committed. Because we know community, connectivity, empowerment, those can come whether you are good at soccer or not.”
Homeless World Cup matches take place at Sacramento State’s Hornet stadium throughout this week. They are free and open to the public.
A crowd watches day one of the Homeless World Cup at CSUS's Hornet Stadium in Sacramento, Calif. on Saturday, July 8, 2023.Andrew Nixon / CapRadioMore information, including schedules, are at homelessworldcup.org.
On Wednesday, experts on health and homelessness will speak at the university during a symposium titled “Believing in Better: Bringing Hope and Healing to a Homeless World Crisis.” The event will be held at the Sacramento State ballroom from 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Contact CapRadio reporter Chris Nichols at [email protected].
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