In Medellín’s alleys and side streets, football’s founding spirit shines

Tom Ringsby landed in Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, on July 14, 2024. Stepping out of the airport and into a taxi, he began listening to the car radio that the driver had put on, and the photographer instantly realised that it was not a normal day in the city.

“I landed during the Copa America and got into the cab, and it was the final between Argentina and Colombia,” he says. ​“Then we’re driving through Medellín, which is a crazy city with all these hills and valleys, and these bars on the side of the road were packed with people in yellow shirts cheering.”

Colombia would ultimately go on to lose the final 1 – 0, thanks to an extra time winner from Argentine striker Lautaro Martínez. ​“When I went to bed fireworks were going off, and people were screaming and crying,” Ringsby continues. ​“Although they unfortunately lost, it was still amazing, and I was like: ​‘Yeah, this is definitely a capital city for football.’”

Originally visiting town to shoot a music video, it was the city’s omnipresent football culture that drew his attention the most, and especially, its informal, DIY street football scene. He was put onto it by his assistant, who had walked past a tournament, and shot a few photographs on his phone to show Ringsby.

“I got really interested in it, so I reached out to Santiago Rodríguez, who was the president of the Colombian faction of the International Street Football Association (ISFA),” he explains. ​“And he is involved in running the Torneo del Barrio [competition] – they stream it on Twitch and they get loads of views, and some of the goals go really viral.”

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“Football really seems to be the lifeblood of the city,” Ringsby says. ​“There’s a saying there, that you’re never really a strong kick away from another pitch. And I think it’s actually true – by the time you walk past a pitch and disappear from view, there’s another one in front of you. Whether they are state of the art, modern pitches or just graffiti on the pavement, some sort of venue for playing football exists.”

As football continues to balloon as the world’s most followed sport and a commercial product – it is estimated to have 3.5 billion fans – the sporting pyramid’s highest peaks are often dominated by glitzy sponsorships and ceremonies, curated marketing, and unfathomable wages, as much as the sport itself. But captured in Ringsby’s photographs is the sport’s founding essence, which sparked its original explosion in popularity.

“Santiago, for example, doesn’t follow mainstream football anymore,” the photographer says. ​“Because it feels so corporate and brand driven compared to street football, which is more punk rock and grassroots, and more like how football originally started. It was people who had day jobs representing their neighbourhood, playing against other towns on the weekend. These are often people who have grown up together and live in the same neighbourhood, playing other neighbourhoods in Medellín.”

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The series also documents a different side to the city compared to the popular imagination. In past decades, as the home city of narco baron and politician Pablo Escobar, it was most often associated with the illicit drug trade, crime and murder. But violent crime rates have drastically fallen since Escobar’s heyday, with 375 homicides in 2023, compared to nearly 7,000 in 1991.

“Since the ​’80s and ​’90s it has had a huge change, and become more of a cultural and artists,” Ringsby says. ​“But for a lot of people in the city – those we were hanging out with were in their 20s – that is history to them. There’s a really positive outlook on it, and the future feels bright in a lot of young people’s eyes.”

See Street Spirit and more photography from Tom Ringsby via his official website.

Isaac Muk is Huck’s digital editor. Follow him on Bluesky.

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