‘You make people a bit happier’: the football app building friendships in London

Cries of “Boss! Boss! Boss!” emerge from the pitch during a hard-fought game of football in a London park. There aren’t a lot of names used in this game, because most players only met just before kick-off. They were brought together by an app that’s injecting life into grassroots football.Footy Addicts was invented to solve an infuriating problem for amateur players – the late dropout, which can lead to unbalanced teams and ruined games. The app brings together strangers who are desperate to play football, and who can step in after a cancellation to make up the numbers at short notice.Raul-Julian Grelet, 28, and Jacob Jae Ellis, 23, (RJ and JJ as they are known) met on the pitch today. Grelet organised their match through Footy Addicts, which is something he’s been doing since the start of the year. He says the platform has been a “marvel to this community”, and hosts matches to give people a chance to play and improve.“I do it because I know what it’s like to go into a game when you’re shy and you don’t want to play and you feel like you’re doing badly. These sessions are open for you to just come and have a kickabout – make some friends and get some exercise.”That’s exactly what the Footy Addicts CEO, Konstantinos Gkortsilas, intended. When he came to the UK in 2006 from Larissa, a city in central Greece, he wanted two things: to play football, and build a community. The trouble was that Sunday League football was too much of a time commitment, and required a big upfront payment to take part. At the same time Gkortsilas didn’t know enough people to organise his own games.So he started using meetup.com, a website which connects hobbyists, to find more players. As the community grew, he eventually launched Footy Addicts in 2013, an independent platform that gives individual footballers a group to play with. Since then it has exploded, with more than 323,000 registered players all over the UK.Gkortsilas saw the difference he made first-hand. “I was coming out of games, meeting people, chatting with them, and it gave me this feeling of accomplishment,” he says. “You’re giving a little bit to people’s lives, making them a bit happier. For me that was the biggest victory.”Two years ago, JJ Ellis had come back to London after finishing university, was working in hospitality, and wanted to get some exercise. “I don’t mind the gym but I don’t think it’s very nice or particularly human,” he says.He found Footy Addicts and started playing with them instead. At the matches, it didn’t feel as if he was fighting an uphill battle to fit in, as many people do when they’re new to a job, or a city, or a country.JJ Ellis (orange bib) and Rjay Grelet (green top) on the pitch at Barnard Park, Islington. Photograph: Sean Smith/The GuardianWhat began as a convenient means of making sure the game goes ahead has since led to blossoming friendships. Next year JJ is going to the wedding of someone he met through the platform.Loneliness, especially among young men, is a problem the Footy Addicts platform can help solve. But it also creates a space for women to play more football. Stephanie Benneli, 33, takes part in a longstanding game in Highbury. She grew up in Brazil playing football all throughout her youth, but when she came to London as an adult, the opportunities to play dried up.After an eight-year lull she discovered the service, which brought back her passion for the game. Now she plays football whenever she wants, and it makes a world of difference to her life.“If I’m struggling – when I’ve been through difficult moments, football is the only thing that really takes me out of my house,” says Benelli. “I don’t care if it’s drizzly, raining, if it’s snowing, I just go out and enjoy.”As Grelet’s match winds down in Barnard Park, the next team gathers on the sidelines, getting ready to take over. They are already introducing themselves, joking around, heckling the players on the pitch at times. The mood is jovial, as friendships form in real time.