A TRUE STORY
“Chrissy Ryman! We’ve got players to do that, your job is to pass!” My heart sank. In that moment, I didn’t quite understand why but I knew something wasn’t right. Here I was, 17 years old at a professional football club playing U18 and reserve team football and only a year away from becoming a professional footballer – my dream since I was 7 years old – and my coach was telling me, rather, shouting at me, not to dribble (I had dribbled from near to the halfway line to the opposition’s penalty box before losing the ball).
Something was wrong.
It was only a few months later that I ended up walking away from a future in professional football – the culture of bravado, bullying and clique had become too much for me and it wasn’t where I wanted to be. I was falling out of love with the Beautiful Game, the game I had loved since I was a young boy.
Something was wrong.
I carried on playing football into my mid-twenties and then gave up. The culture and serious lack of good, thoughtful coaching had become too much for me. I had had enough.
It wasn’t until 10 or so years later that I started playing again through a friend who introduced me to futsal. A few months later, I attended an Introduction to Futsal day run by the English FA to begin to get to know the basics of futsal as a game. Immediately after the session, I remember driving home and beginning the process of grieving the loss and disappointment of all those years before.
I wished I had grown up playing futsal, if only it had been around. I couldn’t help but think my life with a ball at my feet would have looked a whole lot different. Not that I saw futsal as a replacement to football, rather the core elements of this simple small-sided game has the ability to develop players 360 – positionally, creatively and technically.
What was my loss and very difficult experience, I was beginning to realise didn’t need to be the case for future generations. There was an opportunity for a redemption and restoration that involved ensuring the culture and development of younger players was a wholistic one and one that was centred around a culture of Enjoyment, Encouragement and Respect and a vision of developing Creativity, Confidence and Intelligence with a ball – whatever the player’s ability.
And so SoulBall was born.
CHRISTOPHER RYMAN, FOUNDER of SOULBALL
* The full story can be found in The SoulBall Coaching Journey
Football has always been about more than football. Long before SoulBall had a name, there was simply a love for the game, and a simple dream: to grow up and play The Beautiful Game.
That dream became a journey.
Playing it.
Watching it.
Thinking about it.
Living through the highs and the lows that football has a remarkable way of bringing.
There were wonderful experiences, and there were very difficult ones too.
Moments of triumph and disappointment. Moments of belonging and rejection. Moments of freedom and pressure.
And, over time, all of those experiences began to shape a deeper curiosity about the game — not simply how football is played, but how people learn, grow, develop confidence, express themselves and experience the environments we create around them.
SoulBall grew from that journey.
Not from the belief that there is one perfect way to coach.
But from a desire to take everything the game has taught — and continues to teach — and use it to help others flourish through football.
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THE JOURNEY
SoulBall has been shaped over many years through playing, coaching, teaching, studying and learning from the game itself.
The journey has included experience within the professional game, grassroots football, futsal, schools, academies, individual player development and coach education.
Each environment has revealed something different.
Each has brought new people, new experiences and new questions.
Some ideas have been confirmed.
Others have changed completely.
And many are still evolving.
This is an important part of SoulBall — learning is never finished.
The work continues to grow through experience, reflection, conversation and curiosity.
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A WAY OF SEEING
At the heart of SoulBall is a simple belief:
Football is learned through experience.
Players learn by playing.
By making decisions.
By solving problems.
By getting things wrong.
By trying again.
By relating to teammates and opponents.
By discovering what the game asks of them.
The role of the coach is not to control every moment.
It is to help create the conditions in which learning can happen.
The coach shapes the environment.
The game creates experiences.
The players bring the game to life.
The player transforms experience into learning.
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WHY SOULBALL EXISTS
SoulBall exists to empower people through the beautiful game.
Players.
Coaches.
Teachers.
Parents.
Clubs.
Communities.
Sometimes that happens through a coaching session.
Sometimes through a book.
A course.
A workshop.
A conversation.
Or one small idea that causes somebody to see the game differently.
The form may change.
The hope remains the same:
To help create environments where people can explore, think, connect, express themselves and grow.
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THE WORK
Today, SoulBall brings together several connected areas of work:
Books and publications.
Coach education.
Courses.
Player development.
Workshops.
Free resources.
Each one approaches football from a slightly different angle.
Together, they form part of the same ongoing exploration of how people learn through the game.
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ALWAYS LEARNING
SoulBall is not built around having all the answers.
Quite the opposite.
It is built around curiosity.
Around continuing to observe.
Continuing to question.
Continuing to learn from players, coaches, teachers and the game itself.
Because football keeps revealing new things.
And perhaps one of the greatest privileges of working within the game is that there is always more to discover.
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Empowering people through the beautiful game.