Dutch Street Cup

Dutch Street Cup

‘I decided to turn my life around’

The Dutch Street Cup is a national football competition for socially vulnerable people. Social goals, such as personal development and respect, are just as important as the sportive side of the competition. Rimon Sto (24) and Nick Scholmeijer (28) are both part of the team from Eindhoven, which is led by two PSV trainers.

How did the boys end up in the Dutch Street Cup team? Sto: ‘I fled Iraq because of the war. In the Netherlands, I ended up in a refugee centre. I had no job perspectives, because I did not have a passport or any relevant experience. Once I was in school, a classmate invited me to one of his training sessions. I liked it so much that I wanted to join the team myself.’

Turning things around
Scholmeijer’s story is different. He lost his mother, which was part of the reason why he ended up in a shelter. ‘I did not have a job, was living in a shelter and did not really know what to do with myself,’ he explains. ‘One day, I decided to turn my life around. I saw a list of all kinds of sports, including football.
I signed up immediately.’ Although the stories told by Sto and Scholmeijer are completely different, they both sit at the table confidently and laugh along with anecdotes about their past experiences together. Both were at risk of losing touch with society in a sportive and social sense. Their participation in the Dutch Street Cup offered them a chance to reintegrate in our society. Both men took that opportunity without hesitation.

A schedule offers peace of mind
The boys train twice a week for an hour and a half under the supervision of PSV trainers. The training sessions are not a time to goof around, both partici- pants explain. ‘The trainers make us work pretty hard. We always have to give 110%,’ Scholmeijer laughingly explains. ‘But that approach helps us, and not just in an athletic sense. It boosts your confidence, you meet new people and learn to treat each other with respect.’ More importantly: it has a positive influence on the participants’ lives. ‘My development in the team allowed me to move out six months ago to live by myself in my own apartment,’ Scholmeijer says. ‘I have adopted a schedule in my life and enrolled in a sports study programme.’

Dutch national champion
As a result of the Street Cup, Sto has enrolled in a BBL programme that enables him to combine educa- tion and work. ‘When I first came here, I did not speak any Dutch. The boys in the team and the train- ers taught me, which helps me enormously in society,’ he explains. To thank his team, he decided to give up his spot in the Dutch European Homeless Cup team and instead take part in the finals tournament for the national championship. ‘Soufiane Touzani wanted me to join the national team, but I could not abandon my own team. We were trying to achieve something together, so I could not just give up on them.’ The gamble paid off: the boys won the national championship in the autumn of 2015 after beating the title defenders from Amsterdam during a tense game on a packed Museumplein. ‘That was truly fantastic,’ both men shout out in unison, after which Sto takes over. ‘The finals match was very exciting. It came down to penalties and my save earned us the victory. I immediately started crying. I truly felt this was meant to be.