In The Terraces: Football on the streets of Leeds

Words: Ricky Adam

Images: Ricky Adam

Some of the best games of your life happen when it’s only you and your mates to witness it. No rippling nets but the ball rebounding off the top corner of goalposts etched onto a wall. It was definitely in, definitely and on to the next one.

Ricky Adam took his time wandering around Leeds, the land of headers of volleys and the precariousness of your neighbour’s yard as a football trap.

Here he talks us through his photos of a true round ball city.

I ended up moving to the northern city of Leeds from the north of Ireland in 2003. At the time I was working for a magazine, DIG BMX.

I had friends there, the BMX scene was thriving & Leeds was fairly central within the U.K. making it easy to cover.

During this period I went out and took photos in and around the areas close to where I lived.

No real agenda, just exploring the city with a camera and an open mind.

In 2020 during the pandemic I started going through the thousands of photos I had taken in Leeds over the last 16+ years,

I began to separate out all of the football related images.

And there it was, hiding in plain sight.

No politics, no offside rule, just the pure simplicity and joy of a football being kicked up and down back streets all over the city.

Football is everywhere, interwoven into the very fabric of society.

Occupying spaces around us where you least expect it.

Revealing itself the very moment you realise it’s there.

_

A cross between a turnip and a corpse.

A mongrel of a thing.

Half inflated, Bruised, battered and beaten.

It’s seen better days.

Kicked almost to death the length and breadth of a back alley by

a rabid gang of kids.

Its destiny, a wonky, hand painted goal post on an end gable wall.

You can find Ricky on Twitter and Instagram: @rickyadam. His website is rickyadamphoto.com

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