The Football Project

El Tránsito, Nicaragua — Building a stronger community through football (Azul y Blanco).

The Mission

Football is more than a game. It creates a safe space to learn life skills, build confidence, and connect people around shared goals.

Teamwork & belonging: players learn to cooperate, communicate, and support each other.
Focus & discipline: a fast-paced game that develops concentration, persistence, and quick decision-making.
Confidence & wellbeing: physical progress improves self-esteem, reduces stress, and strengthens motivation in daily life.

10 Years of Football in El Tránsito

2016–2019 The beginning, just play 2019–2021 Donations and building structure 2022–2023 Trainings starts - Youth focus 2024–2025 Local competitions · Stronger structure 2026 The Next Chapter — Will You Be Part of It?

2016

I spent over 6 months in the village, starting to build relationships

Surf was my main focus but couldn’t resist to play some games

We had some games, they even had games where they bet and the winner takes all.

I didn’t put money but I won games 😉

2019

Donations

From June to November 2019, football equipment was collected in France and brought to El Tránsito to support local players and kids who often had nothing to play with.

What arrived was far more than expected:

around 40–45 pairs of football shoes
30 jerseys
6–7 footballs and a pump
about 50 shorts
2 full goalkeeper kits

When everything was distributed in November 2019, I chose not to take photos of every person who received something. Many kids came later asking for shoes or a ball — and by then, there was nothing left. Giving fairly is not easy when needs are greater than resources.

One moment stayed with me.

A father came to tell me that his son slept with his new football shoes.

That’s when I fully understood the impact of these donations — not just equipment, but dreams, motivation, and dignity.

That moment gave me the energy to continue and to believe even more in what football can bring to a community.

Building structure

I’m proud to announce that 2 mobile football goals have been installed.

They can be easily removed to let Baseball games happen without inconvenient.

29/11/2019 - Inauguration event:

We organized 7v7 game – 2 goals kick the team losing

We had about 40-50 participants (10-15 from San paulo)
We also had 2 small goals for the 4-10 years old kids

So people knew that football was BACK In El Tránsito !!!!

2022

APRIL 2022

We are organizing some trainings, trying to make that happen every Saturdays

We kept that ongoing for 2-3 months…

We are also running football trainings for the kids every Saturday morning starting at 8am. We are looking for a football volunteering coach even someone novice to help to build different teams.

Very happy of the outcome already, looking for a better moral structure now.