Director: Ian Cumming
Producer: Benjamin Potter
Executive Producer: Richard Wilson
For many, football is an escape from the mind-numbing 9 to 5 job and the struggles of trying to maintain a social life, whilst being a parent. However, for Dutch street footballer, Ed van Gils, football gave him an escape of so much more than repetitiveness of every day life. van Gils’ reality was one that he wanted to escape from as young as seven years old, as a confused and scared boy, with parents who suffered with their addiction to alcohol – a wedge that eventually drove van Gils’ mother to leave the family.
Not many would’ve found the inner strength to use the emotions from a troubled upbringing as a way to fuel their desire to make their dreams come true, but that’s exactly what van Gils did.