From ‘Watchtime to Playtime’. with FC STRAAT, Soufiane Touzani uses video to inspire young people to play football outside

How many street football pitches pioneer Soufiane Touzani (39) has ‘had’ in his life? “Wow! That’s a good one,” he laughs. “Well, I won’t say ‘countless,’ but definitely a lot. I grew up in a neighborhood where you might have had ten different pitches within a five-minute walk.”

He spent hours and hours there as a child. That passion for the street has been a common thread throughout his career. Touzani’s dream of becoming a professional footballer was abruptly interrupted at the age of 16, when he was diagnosed with scoliosis. After surgery, doctors advised him to stop pursuing professional football, after which he fully focused on freestyle and street football: juggling, panna moves and endlessly practicing tricks.

Touzani grew into an online phenomenon. For his popular YouTube channel, which now has over 1.6 million subscribers, he has spent years playing football in hundreds of places, both in the Netherlands and abroad. At major football clubs as well as on local pitches, with football legends like Ronaldo and Messi, and with young, unknown rising talents.

FC STRAAT emerged in late 2021 quite organically from his work as a content creator and his contact with young people. “I noticed kids increasingly asked me the same question: which club do you actually play for? Half joking, I would say, ‘I play for FC Street.’ At some point I thought: what if we actually make that real? Not one club in one location, but a kind of nationwide community. One where you don’t have to pay fees and where everyone can easily join. Pretty soon, we started calling FC STRAAT the largest online and offline football club in the Netherlands.”

The FC STRAAT approach is not about building new pitches, Touzani explains. “Because there are already plenty of pitches in the Netherlands! What we do is empower the existing ones.” This is done through street football events and training sessions, guided by local coaches or youth workers who use formats and exercises that children recognize from Touzani’s YouTube videos. Through QR codes placed at the pitches, they can access videos to learn tricks or take on challenges.

“In this way, we really bring pitches back to life. We work with local role models and use our large reach. I often think of my own mentor, Johan Cruyff, who said: ‘If you have responsibility, you should take it.’ It sounds simple, but it’s essential.”

“We’re basically trying to bridge the gap between online and offline,” Touzani explains. “For me as a child, being outside was natural. Everyone was on the pitch, if you weren’t there, you really had FOMO (fear of missing out). Now kids spend a lot of time online. So you have to respond to that.”

“Look, I’m not against screen time in itself, but in favor of quality screen time: content that motivates kids to move, to play football, to practice. When I used to watch highlights on TV and saw a player control the ball beautifully, I wanted to go outside immediately. To practice and imitate it. That’s our mission with FC STRAAT: from watch time to play time.”

According to Touzani, the value of street football goes beyond physical activity. “It’s one of the most important places where you develop as a child. How to play together, how to behave, how to include others in the group, how to deal with conflict. You’re essentially taking your first steps in leadership.”

At FC STRAAT, the focus is therefore not only on the game itself, but also on behavior on and around the pitch. “From neighborhoods we hear that on pitches where we organize events, a different dynamic really emerges. For example, there’s no swearing, children correct each other respectfully, and there’s more respect overall. The kids know: this is FC STRAAT, everyone belongs here.”

Through its collaboration with Rabobank, this vision is now scaling up. The bank is keen to support initiatives that contribute to health and social cohesion, which aligns perfectly with FC STRAAT. From 20 to 200 FC STRAAT pitches, that is the shared goal. “I think it’s so great that a party like Rabobank sees the importance of this,” says Touzani.

“Together, we can make even more impact and strengthen pitches all over the Netherlands. Meanwhile, we’ll keep doing what we already do: creating videos to inspire kids to go out and play football. And as always, we end every video with the message: ‘Now go outside!’”

Rabobank and FC STRAAT are joining forces to encourage more young people in the Netherlands to go outside and play football in their neighbourhood. The collaboration focuses on organizing weekly FC STRAAT training sessions on local pitches across the country, in cooperation with municipalities and local partners. Fun, development, and accessibility are central: everyone should be able to participate, regardless of their level or background.

FC STRAAT is currently active on about twenty pitches in the Netherlands. With support from Rabobank, the organization aims to expand significantly to 200 pitches in the coming years. Janine Vos, CHRO and member of Rabobank’s managing board, calls FC STRAAT an initiative that “truly gets young people moving, especially in neighborhoods where sports are less accessible.” The partnership aligns seamlessly with the bank’s cooperative mission to strengthen health, equal opportunities, and social cohesion.