Juventus partners with Street Soccer USA; Brings Gioca Con Me Girls National Team to Play Exhibition in Times Square before Team Travels to Qatar for Street Child World Cup
New York, NY (September 8th, 2022) – Today Juventus and Street Soccer USA announced that the Street Soccer USA Times Square Cup, taking place on the 45/46th Street Plaza of Times Square on Saturday, September 10th, 2022 will bring Juventus-backed Street Soccer Girls National team to play special exhibition matches ahead of the team’s trip to Qatar for the 2022 Street Child World Cup.
Through its Gioca Con Me Initiative, Juventus has made the dream of lifetime come true for 10 girls from across the United States who have excelled as players and young women in non profit Street Soccer USA’s programs, which make soccer, education, and employment opportunities accessible for marginalized communities. The team of girls aged 16 and 17 years will meet each other in person for the first time after being selected for the team and joining one another for leadership training over video chats the past several months. Girls will travel from Chicago, Memphis, Charlotte, Philadelphia, D.C. to join girls from New York City. They will compete together for the first time in the unmatched setting of Times Square. During the second week in October teams will represent the United States against more than 20 other nations in Qatar at the 2022 Street Child World Cup.
The Times Square Cup event is the creation of national non profit Street Soccer USA, whose mission is to fight poverty and strengthen communities through soccer. The Times Square Cup is part of the Street Soccer USA Cup series, the premier 4v4 soccer competition in the country, and features high-paced high scoring 20 min matches on a pop up soccer stadium with live DJs and announcing beginning from 10am in the morning to 10pm at night in the unparalleled setting of Times Square. The Street Soccer USA Cup Series creates transformative events that celebrate and grow the unique soccer culture in the United States while raising funds and awareness for Street Soccer USA year round programming that makes soccer accessible to the least served neighborhoods across the country.
Juventus Gioca Con Me first partnered with Street Soccer USA three years ago to adopt the Street Soccer USA Community Soccer Club in Flatbush, providing coaching, competitions, academic, and life skills support to nearly 300 youth, persisting through the pandemic. One such youth has since graduated high school, and is now a full time student on scholarship at Notre Dame University.
The announcement marks the return of the Street Soccer USA Cup Series for the first time since the Covid 19 pandemic and the first event to be held since the announcement of host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.
“Street Soccer USA has huge ambition as an organization to make social change, but that is only possible through everyday work on the community level. Juventus recognizes this and their progressive leadership and vision through Gioca Con Me provides not only tangible aid, but also inspires our youth in a way only a club with the history and grandeur of Juventus can,” said Venanzio Ciampa, Chief of Partnerships and official Ambassador of the Qatar 2022 Street Soccer Girls National team.
Last month Juventus hosted youth from Street Soccer USA-Los Angeles at their training facility in Loyola Marymount where Street Soccer Player from the Watts neighborhood got to visit with first team players like Angel Di Maria, Juan Cuadrado, Danilo, Leonardo Bonucci and Weston Mckennie, and enjoyed their own special training session adjust to the Juventus superstars.
ABOUT SSUSA
Street Soccer USA is a national 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to fighting poverty and strengthening community through soccer in more than a dozen US Cities and beyond. www.streetsoccerusa.org
Street Soccer USA holds Cups, builds Street Soccer Parks, and develops Programs in the least served neighborhoods across the country, increasing access to the world’s most popular game and using soccer as a tool for youth and community development.
ABOUT Juventus Gioca Con Me
Gioca Con me, launched by Juventus in 2012, is a sport-educational project, aimed at children who live in context at risk of discrimination, marginalisation or social exclusion, and who, would otherwise be unable to play football. Active in Italy and at international level, the project aims to promote a healthy and active lifestyle in the girls and boys involved through regular physical activity, offering an opportunity for education and socialisation, proposing a recreational and educational space in which to develop a sense of self-awarness and self-confidence thanks to sport, combining it with a moment of integration.
Furthermore during the last seasons, Gioca con Me has become open for girls and boys with disabilities, to promote the inclusion and improve their social skills and quality of life through games and interactions with others.