“I grew up in a neighbourhood that was mostly Moroccan and Turkish, as well as a few Surinamese people,” explains Akaar, recalling his youth in the West Amsterdam enclave of Osdorp.
– “We used to have this weekly match, like a derby on the estate, and it was always Turkey vs Morocco. My mum was born in Iraq and my father’s Kurdish, but I always joined the Moroccan side, and was the youngest, so always had to go in goal. It was very playful – if you lost, you had to buy the other team ice cream.When I look back at those times, it really brings a smile to my face.”
This street football tradition is well ingrained in Holland and has produced many of its best players; Robin van Persie and Memphis Depay honed their skills in the concrete courts of Rotterdam and Gouda respectively, while Dennis Bergkamp – who was given his debut in the Ajax team by Cruyff at the age of just 17 – has spoken at length of how his astonishing talent was shaped by the architecture of Amsterdam. “Most of the time I was by myself, just kicking the ball against the wall, seeing how it bounces, how it comes back, just controlling it,” he wrote in his autobiography, Stillness and Speed. “I found that so interesting! Sometimes I’d aim at a certain brick, or the crossbar. Left foot, right foot, making the ball spin. Again and again.”
