Building Soccer Bridges

The power of soccer around the world

Working in developing countries, Building Soccer Bridges has empowered tens of thousands of children to make positive contributions to their communities by using soccer as a tool to build their leadership skills and self-confidence. 

With generous support from Goldman Sachs Gives, along with many individual donors, Soccer Stars Foundation partners annually with United States-Africa Children’s Fellowship (USACF) and Super Soccer Stars to bring the joy of soccer directly to children in underserved communities in Africa. We currently serve the grassroots soccer education community in the economically depleted, rural district of Matabeleland, Zimbabwe.

How Building Soccer Bridges Works

Each year, the foundation sends a delegation of soccer coaches to Zimbabwe to work with local school teachers, educators and community leaders to share the Super Soccer Stars model of delivering fun, engaging soccer classes while, at the same time, providing leadership training to hundreds of school children of all ages.

These week-long courses include youth soccer clinics and adult leadership training seminars. School teachers are given the opportunity to obtain their Level I and II ZIFA-accredited (Zimbabwe Football Association) coaching licenses. Over the years, Building Soccer Bridges has ensured that over 50,000 children have access to organized soccer programming right at their local school.

The foundation held our eighth annual Building Soccer Bridges program in August 2019. During this training, 41 participants became certified soccer coaches. Their impact will be magnified to over 24,000 school children during the school year!