Football Culture In Oakland

Joey Mintz, USA

Joey Mintz is a social worker, musician, artist, and football enthusiast living in Oakland, California. He plays in leagues and pick-up games across his city, and explains how the sport is growing in the USA.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your football journey?

I always say I owe much of my life to Pelé. Thanks to Pelé signing with the New York Cosmos in 1975, the popularity of football in the USA grew rapidly, and soon kids like me in upstate New York were introduced to the sport through the weekend leagues cropping up all over the country.

I remember my first day doing drills at four years old like it was yesterday. I loved it immediately. I grew up in some really difficult circumstances, and running around on the pitch was my first real experience of feeling free. I took football seriously all the way through high school, but I did not have the support to pursue it professionally or in university, so my journey ended when I graduated at 18.

I was crushed by this, and I barely kicked a ball for the next 15 years or so. I would not even watch it on TV either, it brought up too much disappointment. As a young adult, I pursued other dreams of being a musician, an artist, a teacher, and eventually a social worker. However, something happened when I was watching the 2014 World Cup and that spark for the game ignited in me once again. I started joining leagues and pick-up games, and that same joy from my youth returned like it had never left.

Over the last 8 years I have had a whole second wave in the sport. I am 43 now, I still manage to get out there and play 2 or 3 times a week, and I am following my favorite teams each weekend with fervent passion. I am an Arsenal fan. I inherited the love for Arsenal from a friend who got me watching games, and the whole Arsene Wenger era is what made it stick. His way of thinking about the game really resonated with me. It has become a huge part of my life and identity again, and I am so grateful.

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?

All of the photos were taken in and around Oakland, CA. You are seeing friends, people I know and play with in different local leagues, and pick-up games - including players like Ethan, Chris, Minh, and Emro from East Bay Over Thirty Soccer (EBOTS). There are also some photos from a couple of Oakland Roots SC matches, our new local professional team.

I had a whole plan visualized where I was going to capture every element of the rich and vibrant football culture in Oakland and the wider Bay Area. But then the pandemic hit, everything shut down, and my vision went out the window.

To be honest, looking back at these photos I feel a lot of sadness. In one photo we are there barbecuing after a Sunday morning pick-up game, and we are all wearing masks. I remember being so glad to be around people again, while simultaneously feeling really afraid to catch Covid and get seriously sick. Life felt like a ghost town for a while and I feel like the photos have a lot of empty space in them. Many turned out to be portraits, because they were taken during and soon after the lockdown and each person in my life felt like something I no longer took for granted. They are kind of a time capsule for the early pandemic era.

I also think portraits of people wearing certain jerseys was something I was drawn to. It really interests me, living here in the States, how someone comes to identify with a team overseas that in most cases you are not connected to through geography or place of birth. What are the things that inspire the love for a certain team? Being a fan, in my opinion, is often about values, symbolism, memory, and connection to loved ones.

What is your favorite photo?

The shot of Zumbi performing before an Oakland Roots match is special to me. Zumbi is part of the legendary Bay Area hip-hop group Zion I. I listened to his music as a teenager back in New York, and I saw him perform many times over the years I have spent in California, and he was such a cool guy. He died in 2021 under tragic circumstances and the Bay Area really mourned him. He liked football, and came out to perform before a match and the crowd was loving it. This was just before Covid arrived and I am glad I got to be there for this experience before he passed.

Are there any good stories connected with the people photographed?

The photos of my good friend Janvier dribbling amongst the waves on the beach are meaningful. He grew up in Rwanda and Burundi, and eventually came to the Bay Area as a young man. We were hanging out on the California coast passing the ball, dribbling, and juggling.

This says a lot to me about the language of football, how people who grow up on opposite sides of the planet can connect and relate through a shared passion. It is powerful how you can be anywhere in the world and connect through that passion, and transform your mind state just by having the ball at your feet. Moments like this were really important in the early pandemic when all the leagues and pick-up games were shut down. Just passing the ball with a friend brought a bit of much needed solace.

What role does football play in your community and the USA?

Football is growing in the USA, but I still experience it as a subculture. It reminds me of something like skateboarding in that sense. On the one hand, there are far fewer football lovers in the States, so it can take some time to find the community you are looking for, but on the other hand when you do find your footballing people there is a real strong bond that develops. A downside is that we do not have the same deep history with the game that you have in Europe for example, but the upside is that a whole new generation here is discovering the game with fresh eyes and excitement.

When I go to an Oakland Roots game, the stadium only holds about 5,000 people. It is a small crowd, but the atmosphere there is truly special and passionate. It is not the Camp Nou, but I think we enjoy it as such. Many people coming to the games are just getting into the sport, perhaps because they love Oakland, maybe because they love other sports, or maybe because they just love the food and the vibe. But when I look at people’s faces in the crowd I feel like I am witnessing a new love being born right in front of me.

The community here is so proud of the Oakland team, the flair and style that we have on and off the pitch, and the connection to the wider community that the organization has. In the USA, It feels like we get to draw on the rich tradition of football from other countries, while at the same time creatively redefining some things and adding our own flavor to it, especially in Oakland.

What does football mean to you?

Football for me these days is almost a spiritual pursuit. I am sure many people can relate to this sentiment. I am a school counselor for a living, and my training included learning about mindfulness as one of many treatments for trauma. I have learned that mindfulness looks really different for everyone, but I think the thing we are all pursuing is living in the moment and finding that feeling of just being, and the great relief that comes with that.

For me, playing football is the most effective way of achieving mindfulness that I have experienced. On a good day, when I am on the pitch I am totally in the moment, I am completely focused on the game as it is unfolding around me, and I am not thinking about anything else. I reach that flow state where I lose all sense of time and it feels like meditation. When I lace up my boots, I feel the same energy and joy that I felt at four years old, and a warmth runs through my brain and body.

As an older man, being calmer and having watched thousands of hours of football on TV, I am actually a better player than I was as a kid, and I still have personal goals that I work on each weekend. For me, football is about beauty, creativity, working together, striving for mastery of a physical art form, and struggling with and against the edge of our own limitations. I imagine people all over the world relate to this idea. 

Football is of course also about connection and community. A place where I meet people from all walks of life, from different countries, and with differing views of things. Football allows us to commune, and experience joy through our collective creativity and collaboration on the pitch.

What is the future for football in the USA?

I think the future of football in the USA should be focused on development, creating more integrated educational structures, and building more access to the game for different communities. There is much we can learn from how other countries accomplish this. My hope is also that we develop and refine our own football culture, and harness more of the amazing and creative energy you can find here in the States.

There is so much talent, passion, and potential here and I hope we can channel some of that energy and creativity towards supporting a new generation of footballers who raise the level of the game in the US, and then we will see what happens over time. I do not know if we will ever have a league as big and competitive as the Premier League, or La Liga, but I hope we will eventually have a style and culture of football that we feel really proud of, and that the world can look to with respect.