The Home of Global Grassroots Football
FTBLRLIFE (pronounced “Footballer Life”) is a global community connecting 500 million grassroots football players, coaches, academies, and businesses across 130+ countries. We are building the home that grassroots football has never had.
One Home for the Game We All Love
Football is the biggest sport on the planet. There are an estimated 500 million grassroots players across the world. And until now, no one has ever built a home for them.
The game has always been fragmented. WhatsApp groups. Instagram accounts. Websites. Isolated academies. Village players who never get seen. Millions of disconnected islands.
FTBLRLIFE brings them into one place. We are a global football community and platform where players, coaches, academies, and businesses connect, share stories, discover talent, and build the future of the game together. From dirt fields in East Africa to youth clubs in North America to grassroots academies in Asia, Europe, and South America, our community spans 130+ countries and continues to grow every day.
We are also home to the FTBLRLIFE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of our mission. Through our QR-coded Foundation Ball program, we deliver footballs to under-resourced academies around the world, creating a physical to digital bridge between donors, players, and the global community. Every ball tells a story. Every scan connects a life.
The Game Deserves Better
Grassroots football has been overlooked for too long. The economic and geographic barriers in the game keep talented players invisible. Coaches showing up at 6 AM go unrecognized. Academies without budgets struggle to survive. Families trying to do the right thing for their kids can’t find the resources they need.
Meanwhile, the professional side of football is a global industry worth over $600 billion. The grassroots side, where 99% of the players actually are, has been left to fend for itself.
FTBLRLIFE exists to change that. We are reducing the economic and geographic barriers in the game by giving grassroots football a home, a voice, and an ecosystem where everyone benefits, not just the top of the pyramid.
Our Operating System
Everything we build sits on three principles. This is the FTBLRLIFE operating system.
Organize
We bring the fragmented world of grassroots football into one connected community. One home for players, coaches, academies, and the people who love the game.
Visibility
We give players, coaches, and academies the visibility they have never had. Talent everywhere finally has an opportunity to be seen, wherever they are in the world.
Support
We use the community to bring real, sustainable support back to the game. Ball donations, kits with a purpose, partnerships, sponsorships, and opportunities that reach the grassroots directly.
“Valerie Nekesa was found playing barefoot in a village in Kenya. She just scored at a World Cup and signed with CD Tenerife. That is one story. There are millions more waiting.”
— David Clarke, Founder
What We Are, What We Are Not
What FTBLRLIFE Is
- A global grassroots football community and platform
- A home for players, coaches, academies, and businesses who love the game
- A physical to digital bridge through our Foundation Ball program
- An ecosystem for player visibility, discovery, and development
- A foundation with a mission to reduce economic and geographic barriers
- A media company and the data layer grassroots football has never had
- A place where kids in Colorado can be connected to kids in Kenya
What FTBLRLIFE Is Not
- Not another social media platform trying to be everything to everyone
- Not a scouting service selling access to your child
- Not a data company selling your personal information
- Not a nonprofit dependent on donations to exist
- Not focused on the pro game or fantasy football
- Not a place for negativity, cliques, or gatekeeping
- Not just for elite players. The grassroots is the point.
Built by People Who Love the Game
FTBLRLIFE was founded by David Clarke to build the home for the game he grew up loving. What started as a simple observation, that grassroots football had no home, has grown into a global movement.
The name FTBLRLIFE is a stylized version of FootballerLife, our full brand name and the URL of our website. It captures the digital-native energy of the grassroots football community we serve. Whether you say it “Footballer Life” or spell it FTBLRLIFE, you are talking about the same global community of people who live and breathe the game.
Today, FTBLRLIFE operates across 130+ countries with partner academies, clubs, and businesses on multiple continents. Our team spans the United States, the Philippines, Kenya, Spain, and beyond, working together every day to build something that has never existed before.
We are still early. We haven’t made it yet. But we know how this ends. Grassroots football is going to have a home, and every player who has ever loved this game is going to belong somewhere.