OUR WORK IS OUR PASSION

To be completely engaged with what you are doing – and instead of calling it work, realize it is play.

Kings OF KLESSHEIM

If someone asked us which question in our lives, we are the answer to, we would answer: "Who inspires and supports people from “socially disadvantaged areas” by founding and running a street football network?" We are Austria’s first organized street football network that organizes street football events on specific places that should be included in the next FIFA Street series. Our mission is to create an inviting atmosphere that inspires one to develop not only in terms of football but above all as a human being - the unfolding of the bare human soul is that what interests us – always and everywhere, on and off the pitch.

ON THE PITCH we started unfolding it back in 2018 in Brazil, representing Austria at the Neymar Jr’s Five World Finals and ever since then hosting prestigious high-quality street football tournaments in urban areas.

OFF THE PITCH we started unfolding it "officially" in 2021 when the Austrian Football Association awarded us with the Austrian Social Football Award 2021 for operating as a center for effective integration and migration as well as for individualized personality development. We are going through the transformative process of being a gathering place for troublemakers that was not taken seriously to becoming a raw street football talent academy that is getting respected more and more.

STREET MASTERS

Street Masters is a fusion of street football lovers around the world, a global network, that with their full body, mind and soul are proactively working on the expansion of the community feeling within their respective football pitches beyond the city and country borders. This collaboration symbolizes the possibility of establishing a well-connected street football event series across the globe and therefore being able to host global street football events, which appeal to young people and have a lasting influence on the development of the respective communities on an interpersonal and sporting level.

Doesn't matter where you're from, if you're experienced in hosting street football events and true community work, hit us up and let's create something incredible together!

THE VISION
It is our realistic dream to develop a global ranking system for street football (similar to what is being used in 3x3 Street Basketball) that, in addition to regional and national tournaments in the respective host countries, includes a prestigious World Series.

It is not just about playing street football for us, but in particular about dealing with and conveying essential values, for which street football proves to be a reliable tool. In order to be able to continue to guarantee this on a large scale, it is necessary to cooperate with reliable partners, whereby we will not turn to just any random person, company or community, as it is simply important for us to stand behind what our partner represents - we are highly concerned with living authenticity and refuse sterile partnerships that are not completely into the whole project.

INTERNATIONAL KLESSHEIM FUTSAL CLUB

The more time and energy we invested in the beautiful art of street football, the more often one obvious thought was buzzing around in our heads: It would simply be a shame not to unfold this potential fully that is congregating in Klessheim! On the sacred street football field, they are realizing that legendary potential almost every day, but it was about time that people "outside" the community find out about it.

This ultimately gave rise to the idea of not only teaming up with these guys outside on the street football field, but also indoors, because it was always about 1-on-1 duels in tight spaces - about "playing someone dizzy" - and that's why in spring 2021 we decided to found our own futsal club, or to be more precise, the 1st futsal club in Salzburg called International Klessheim Futsal Club, in order to make the Latin American version of indoor football socially acceptable in Salzburg on a professional level.

Just as with the tournaments, everyone helped together from start to finish: from writing the statutes, looking for home venues and sponsors, creating a logo, procuring jerseys, maintaining contact with the professional associations, planning the training sessions, managing social media activities, organization of the staff and of course the joint motivational speech in the dressing room. In November 2021 we got a taste of the 2nd Austrian futsal division for the first time at our home, the Nord Liefering Sports Centre, and after a perfect first half of the season with the maximum number of points we sensed the opportunity to advance to the Bundesliga, the 1st division, in our debut season...

LEAGUE LEADER, FRONTRUNNER…OR?

Not only our football talent gave us a smooth start in the 2nd Austrian futsal divison, but also the myth-enshrouded team chemistry. No escapades, no disputes - instead respect and mutual appreciation. We focus on the same goals and see the game from a slightly different perspective, because at the end of the day we can't lose: either we teach or we learn. And even though we lost two important games in the second half of the season and were therefore even on points with those competitors against whom we dropped points, our name continued to adorn the top of the table. After the decisive game against the team from Linz SV Ljuti Krajišnici, we were congratulated from all sides on the championship title and so we celebrated ourselves as the league leaders in our home venue... well, at least for a few hours, before the party mood got interrupted suddenly with a call from the Austrian Football Association ÖFB…

Surprisingly, the Austrian Football Association ÖFB informed us that the prior table was a misunderstanding, since with such a special and, above all, rare table constellation, a rule comes into force that the whole league probably did not have on the screen, otherwise our opponents would not have left our playing field with their heads bowed, but with their heads held high. Although we’ve won the respective direct duels against the Upper Austrians SV Ljuti Krajišnici as well as against the third-placed LPSV Kärnten, who also had the same number of points, we ended our season after all "only” as a runner-up since the Linzers had a better goal difference against the Carinthians and the best goal difference from the direct encounters between all three teams.

Logical for some, confusing for others - and yet this call didn't spoil our mood - quite the opposite happened...

FRONT-(RUNNER-UP)

Our hearts are full when we think about this day, even though we "lost"... Although we were demoted from champion to runner-up... Although we celebrated too early and realized later on that we were studying the ruleset only up to 99%… Although next season we will be playing again in the 2nd Austrian futsal division.

And yes, in spite of all this, our hearts are full because our entire season was not only advertising for the Austrian futsal, but above all a perfect game. A perfect game isn't about the result - it's about the relationship we have with ourselves, with our team, with our "opponents" and with the spectators. You can feel a perfect game with every breath, even in every single moment in which we can look into each other's eyes with clear focus and a clear conscience, knowing that there was nothing more that could have been done because we were devoting ourselves thoroughly to the game - with pure heart, body and soul - nodding to each other because we really gave our all. Yes, it's about those special looks that we exchanged between each other and that have been immortalized deep inside of us:

No wistfulness, no resentment, no despair - instead pure joy, pure happiness, pure fulfillment. Because it is the passion that drives us continuously to live what we love and to love what we live - that passion that makes life worth living, and why that? To put it at its simplest: because it opens our hearts. And one only knows something like that from movies - all the better that our life feels like a movie.

JERSEY STORIES

The greatest gift one human being can give another human being is noticeable, perceptible as well as sincere attention and this is where we come into play, because the main reason for the current, unbelievable harmony on the pitch is characterized by an action that we started at the beginning of 2020. We started with “gifting” football jerseys, but not casual ones – more than that - passionate ballers, those who really put their heart and soul into the beautiful game, those who came regularly and felt nothing but pure love for this sport, have been surprised with individually printed football jerseys from their favorite club or country of origin including their names and, of course, their shirt number. These surprises weren’t gifts in the conventional sense, which were given to somebody and then mostly gathered dust at home in the wardrobe or under the bed – no, these jerseys remained in our possession and instead of the classic Ronaldo, Messi or Zidane jerseys, from then on only the names of our youngsters were embellishing our backs at every afternoon kick.

In addition, they adorn our legendary jersey wall, the “Wall of Passion”, which has occasionally given the Klessheim district its very own flair since then - in the end, this is our personal way of showing that we value and appreciate someone. And, of course, we don't want to exclude anyone - so everyone who kicks regularly in Klessheim and gives their best will get their jersey, because in the end it is the love for the game that unites us, and thus, brings people together that otherwise would not have been brought together.

Since we have already printed more than 130 different football jerseys individually, we have already spent thousands of euros in this regard, but when you consider how many tears of joy flowed in front of our eyes – when you consider how many strong hugs we received that cracked the hard shells of our fellas – and when you consider how many of them just stood in front of us, speechless, flabbergasted and overwhelmed, especially those who always knew how to attract negative attention in the past, we can say with a pure heart, it was definitely worth it, it was worth every single penny! At their age, many have to realize painfully that they have to say goodbye to the dream of becoming a professional footballer, but the dream of reading your last name on the back of a fan became a reality.

BACK 2 SCHOOL

Due to the fact that street football, through its universal language, connects people regardless of social, economic and cultural origin and thus brings people together who "normally" or in other areas of life would have not been brought together, it is important to us to play a greater role as a credible example in the overall process of integration and inclusion in Europe's educational institutions and organizations. In 2022 we started with the organization of educational sports events and conversation rounds á la TedTalk in schools to promote sustainable community development with regard to the overall societal well-being and various forms of lifelong learning for everybody.

Especially for young people from "social areas of conflicts", street football can be effective as an integration center "acting in the background" with regard to juvenile delinquency and dealing with violence, because street football serves as a catalyst in regulated processes to reduce aggression and frustration and is also a team sport, which requires interactive and cooperative social behavior. So, it's not just about intercultural understanding, but also about prevention. Through the noticeable development of a common value that is inherent in street football, the support work for young people in Austria should be made more inviting.