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Kicking It 
In the summer of 2006, while the football world's attention was focused on Germany, thousands of players around the globe were training hard and competing to be part of another World Cup ... The Homeless World Cup.
It had been a wild idea by a Scot and an Austrian -- to give homeless people a chance to change their lives through an international street soccer competition.
Five years later, the annual Homeless World Cup had become an internationally recognized sports competition.
500 homeless players from 48 nations would ultimately be selected to represent their country in Cape Town, South Africa - coming from such disparate parts of the world as war torn Afghanistan, the slums of Kenya, the drug rehab clinics of Dublin, Ireland, the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, the overflowing public shelters of Madrid, Spain, and the unforgiving city of St. Petersburg, Russia, where the homeless have no rights or identity.
Win or lose, for these players it would be the journey of a lifetime.
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- Credits
- Homeless World Cup
- Coaches
- Premieres and Screenings
- Ted Leonsis - Producer
- Susan Koch - Director
- Neil Barrett - Director of Photography
- Jeff Werner - Co-Director and Editor
- Wider Brothers - Producers
- Distributors and Agents
- Executive Producers
- Kicking It Facebook Page
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Cinematical
HBO Documentary Films
Reel Works
International Documentary Association
StoryCorps
Media that Matters Film Festival
Independent Lens
Docs that Inspire
Doc it Out
Indiewire
About the Film
There are an estimated one billion homeless people in the world.
That's roughly the same number of football fans who watched the 2006 World Cup.
What happens when football and homelessness come together?
Lives change.
And the annual Homeless World Cup has the statistics to prove it.
In 2006, 48 countries competed in the 4th annual Homeless World Cup.
One year later...
92% players have a new motivation for life
73% have changed their lives for the better
93 players successfully addressed a drug or alcohol dependency
35% have secured regular employment
44% have improved their housing situation
39% chose to pursue education
72% continue to play football
Kicking It, a feature documentary film, about the power of sports to change lives.