Liverpool is a huge breeding ground for talent. The Merseyside region produces almost as many professional football players as the city of London. Boys like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Joey Barton, Ross Barkley and Leighton Baines learned to play football on the street. They shot their worn-out football thousands of times at the intersection of the so-called urban goals, captured by photographer Michael Kirkham (40) from Liverpool.
“Liverpool is a city that still has enormous poverty and deterioration in the suburbs,” Kirkham said. “The city has been in need of a major refurbishment for decades, but we are being overlooked by the government. This ensures that children become creative and spend a lot of time outdoors. In a radius of one mile (1.6 km) around In my home in the Aigburth district, at least 30 Urban Goals have been scaled on the walls, and some locals don’t like it, but I think it’s beautiful, and Liverpool is still a football city.
