Cathrin’s beautiful game-changing moment
|“If you see a fire inside my heart, it’s street soccer.” Former player Cathrin coached the Norwegian team in Sacramento in 2023. Image: Dan Higginson
You can't really know where you're going until you know where you have been. Beautiful words of wisdom once bestowed by poet and author Maya Angelou. And a phrase which resonated with Norwegian women’s team coach, Cathrin Johansen who, last summer, shared her remarkable story with us, looking back on her ten-year relationship with Homeless World Cup and how it not only shaped her but saved her.
“Back in 2013 I was still using drugs. I’d been using heavy drugs for over ten years at that time and I wasn’t finding my way out of it - I couldn’t imagine my life without drugs,” she states.
Then her social worker began talking about street football and how it could give her another focus. “I didn’t understand what it was. I thought it meant playing football on the streets, not on the fields - I took it literally,” she laughs.
Her social worker said she could get Cathrin into training, and she agreed, but only if she would go with her.
“So I turned up at every practice, every week. But I had to not use that day, to be able to be part of the practice, and some weeks I just couldn’t do it,” she admits.
On those weeks, she started receiving phone calls from her fellow players, telling her they missed her - and that was a turning point.
“To be part of someone else’s life…that became a big part of encouraging me to be in that environment. A place where I could be myself, I didn’t have to put on a mask and no one could judge me on what I had done before, those things that I was not proud of.
“We were there to play football - that was the focus, it was a very positive focus, and I got into the national team that year.
“I’d got to know the national team manager, to shake his hand, to dream that one day I may be in his team - and now his hand was writing my name in his team book. It was really exciting.”
The other side of the coin wasn’t so shiny, however. Cathrin was still using drugs. Just not on the mornings of days where she had football practice.
She was faced with a huge dilemma. To be part of the squad required signing a contract to cover the whole time the players were together as the national team - a five-month period - promising they would not take drugs or alcohol.
“I had been swaying towards starting to use again, because I had no belief in myself to live without drugs,” she recalls, “but I signed the contract. I’m a very stubborn person and I realised I didn’t want to lose this opportunity more than I wanted back on drugs.”
The team environment was a massive boost to Cathrin, a hugely positive experience where both exercise and making new friends who came from similar backgrounds who had faced the same challenges, helped her stick to the contract.
“We were not together there to use drugs, we were there to do something positive.”
“I didn’t have a job but now I had something worthwhile to do every day. And, as I also had ADHD, for me the physical exercise had a really beneficial effect.”
Prior to setting off for the tournament in Chile in 2014, Cathrin also reconciled with her family who she had pushed away over the years, but who had remained there for her.
“They were so proud to see me become a part of Homeless World Cup and were really cheering for me from home.
“It’s never been a tough question for me to be open about my struggles and my family have encouraged me to speak about it. They said I should not be ashamed of my past because I have stood up and done something about it.”
Without a doubt, she stresses, Homeless World Cup was her saviour, what made her face the hard choices, because, “the way I was using drugs I would probably not be sitting here today.
“I was in a bad spiral, self-destructive, having many suicidal attempts, and it was just a matter of time before I wouldn’t have been alive any more.
“Homeless World Cup made me stop using and those five months were such a positive experience. Everyone I met there…it was like the biggest drugs rush but so much better than any drugs. I was on a big cloud but without drugs.”
Travelling far from home, into a completely different environment, wasn’t without its challenges and Cathrin admits she had moments where she was at odds with her demons, “but the fact I realised I could handle all this without drugs - that ‘ah-ha’ moment came when I was in Chile - I always try to remember that feeling, that awakening that you don’t have to go back.”
While in Santiago, Cathrin got to know the American team well so was delighted to rekindle her friendship with former players Lisa Wrightsman and Tiffany Fraser in Sacramento, both now forces within Street Soccer USA.
“I really feel like I made friends for life that year - even though they’re not people you meet every day, it’s like a family bond which will never be broken.”
2023 sees Cathrin viewing proceedings from the side of the pitch rather than on it - so how did that transformation come about?
Well, following her return to Denmark nine years previously, she picked up a part-time job, then went on to college. A few years later she started her own local team then became a volunteer when the Homeless World Cup tournament went to Oslo in 2017. That led to her becoming a volunteer with the Salvation Army before securing a full-time job as a social worker.
“I work with people who have been using drugs and have experienced psychotic episodes,” she explains, “so we offer meaningful activities including street soccer, plus I’m the coach of the local team where I live.”
Her national women’s team coaching role first emerged in 2020, when the tournament was scheduled to be held in Finland but was then cancelled due to the pandemic.
“Though I’d been a local coach for two years, it was a real challenge to take that further, to step up fully from a player/coach role to a full coach role.
“It was already a battle to keep the women engaged and to keep attracting new players - it’s a global issue - and during Covid it was an even bigger challenge because we couldn’t play, and I had to be creative.
“We had a lot of walk-and-football-talk which we did outside - that’s not easy in temperatures of minus 15! We lost a lot of our players and a number started using drugs again, people who had been clean for a number of years, because of the isolation.
“Then it was difficult to attract people back to the sport because some had really gone back in deep - but we never give up on anyone.”
As the world opened up again, Cathrin and her colleagues came up with the idea of Corona Football, where they taped over a pitch to allow each player in their own restricted area and adapted the rules, to allow the team to play ‘together’. This led to Corona Football tournaments which succeeded in retaining many players.
After a few years’ delay, Sacramento 2023 became a reality and Cathrin retained her national coaching role.
“I was really excited when I was told I’d be on the staff because my coach from Chile had also started as a player,” she recalls, “and I remember him saying then how happy he was to be free of drugs and what a positive effect Homeless World Cup had had on him.
“To have those role models coaching me in 2013, telling me this all doesn’t have to stop when the tournament ends - I wanted to be that person to my team in 2023.”
Though Cathrin and her players had been involved in smaller European tournaments over the past few years, she conceded the biggest thrill had been to be present in Sacramento.
“When I’ve told the girls about the Homeless World Cup before, it’s been really difficult to explain what the feeling is like. You can use words but until they’re actually here to experience the noise, the players, an environment like you’ve never seen before…after the first game they KNEW how special it is.”
The sun has set, the heat has all but left the day, and the match we were watching between our conversation has now finished, with both teams joining hands, laughing and applauding the crowd. Cathrin is on her feet, whooping, beaming, and totally embodying the spirit of the tournament.
“If you see a fire inside my heart, it’s street soccer,” she announces as she parks herself back on the bleachers.
“I’m so lucky to have a job where my life interest is in my heart.
“Travelling with teams, encouraging new players warms my heart and arouses a lot of emotions.
“Even though some days it’s almost too much, I get to meet so many beautiful people and I just want to give them the experience that I was given.
“I can never explain how grateful I am for everything.”
Don’t worry there, Cathrin - your smile truly says it all.
Words: Isobel Irvine
Photos: Dan Higginson