A group of homeless Irish soccer players have won a trophy at the Homeless World Cup finals in Sweden.
The Irish team won 10 games in a row and scored 79 goals on their way to winning the International Network of Street Papers (INSP) Trophy in the final in Gothenburg at the weekend, beating Portugal 9-2.
The team emerged through the Dublin street soccer programme which was established last year to give homeless players a break in life.
Ireland's tournament started badly when they had two players sin-binned against Poland in their first game last week. They were leading 4-0 when they were reduced to just three men and ended up losing 9-7.
While they were out of the running for the main World Cup, they still qualified for the International Trophy and did not lose a game for the rest of the tournament.
Dubliner Craig Douglas narrowly missed out on the Golden Boot award for the tournament's top scorer, with 33 goals. The team took part in the first Homeless World Cup in Austria last summer, explained the street league organiser, Mr Sean Kavanagh, of Ireland's Issue magazine.
When the team arrived home last summer some of the players went back on the streets as they had nowhere to go.
However, this year the organisers are determined that it won't be a case of rounding up players from the streets, bringing them to the World Cup and then saying 'Bye now, see you next year', said Mr Kavanagh.
A weekly league based in Dublin's Sheriff Street and recruiting players and teams from all over the country will start up in September.
"This way we can use soccer as a catalyst to get people together, get them involved in FÁS schemes, develop social skills, give them a sense of discipline," said Mr Kavanagh.
All the players in the World Cup squad that went to Sweden are in some sort of transitional housing.
Goalkeeper Paddy Murphy (21), from Tallaght, was part of the team that went to Austria last year. On the streets since he was orphaned at 14, he has recently been staying at St Catherine's residence on Marrowbone Lane, Dublin.
"I heard from some other guys I knew who were sleeping rough that there were trials going on," he said yesterday.
"To be honest, I thought they were only messing at the time, but then I heard about it from Ireland's Issue and I went down to Crumlin for trials."
Dermot Haverty (23) is from Dublin, and also lives in St Catherine's.
"We raised money for the event ourselves, selling Ireland's Issue. We organised a dinner in the Red Cow Inn with the help of the FAI," he said.
"We also organised a corporate penalty shoot-out competition in Merrion Square last week, where companies paid €500 to take part."
Clive Martin (25), also from Dublin, is the self-proclaimed joker of the team. He said there was great interaction between the different countries in Sweden.
"We were all staying together in a kind of boarding school accommodation, and you were thrown in with all the other lads.
"The Scottish and the Dutch were beside us. They called us the crazy Irish.
"The pub beside where the tournament was being held was called The Dubliner, and the Irish guy that owned it had a bucket of champagne waiting on ice for us after the final."
Next year's tournament is to be held in New York, with the legendary Madison Square Garden being mentioned as a possible venue.
Dublin-based Paradise Films accompanied the team during the tournament, making a fly-on-the-wall documentary for RTÉ, which is due to be screened in October. Director Liz Kinsella was there for the 10 days.