A gifted footballer and member of the Webber Street team, Charles Yiadom-Konadu is using the universal language of the beautiful game to build friendships and share the message of Jesus with people experiencing homelessness.

During the week, Charles Yiadom-Konadu, LCM team member, works at Webber Street Homeless Day Centre, supporting people experiencing homelessness in central London. He cleans the showers, serves breakfasts, sets up the room for various functions, and builds friendships with people who have slept rough on London’s streets the night before.

Charles is also a talented footballer. Out of work hours, he plays for The Baller League and was part of a team that recently won the competition. It is through this talent and passion for football that he has shared the gospel with countless Webber Street guests.

Gospel opportunities during the World Cup

With the World Cup to start soon, football is about to be on everyone’s mind. Conversations in workplaces, church, and on the street will revolve around matches, players, and results. Moments like this matter because football is more than a sport. It is a shared language.

“A lot of the Webber Street guests love football. And because I still play football, I sometimes share football clips or invite guests to watch me play a game. It’s been a great way to build friendships with the guests,” Charles explains.

At Webber Street, football consistently brings people together. Guests and staff come from a wide range of backgrounds and nations, and often do not share the same first language. Yet football cuts through those barriers.

Building relationships through football

It has become a powerful way to build relationships.

“What I love about working at Webber Street is seeing joy and hope return to the guests as we love and care for them,” says Charles.

“We see their confidence return as we befriend them, pray for them, and just have good conversations with them. It’s about being honest about our struggles, talking about what we love, and what we find challenging. And chatting about football can be a great starting point.”

Webber Street is committed to meeting practical needs and caring for each person with dignity; everything is done with a deeper hope in mind. Those relationships create opportunities to share Jesus. Charles lives that out faithfully, using football not just to connect, but to point people towards something greater.

Here are five ways to use football to share the gospel

1. Use football spaces to build real relationships

Football puts you in front of people you would not normally meet. Teammates, opponents, coaches, fellow supporters. Over time, those repeated interactions build trust. At Webber Street, that trust opens the door to real conversations. Not forced ones, but honest ones about life, struggle, and hope. Sharing Jesus often begins here. In relationships that are genuine.

2. Create or support football-based ministries

Football ministries are one of the clearest ways to connect sport and faith. In Charles’ church, sessions are simple. Training, drills, a short talk about Jesus, then a match. People come for football, but they hear the gospel in a setting that feels natural and welcoming. It does not need to be complicated. Football draws people in. The message meets them there.

3. Use discipline as a bridge to talk about God

Anyone who plays football understands discipline. You train regularly, stay committed, and show up even when it is hard. That connects directly to faith.

The Bible speaks about God disciplining his children out of love, shaping them for growth. When people already understand discipline through football, it becomes much easier to talk about how God works in our lives.

It takes something familiar and points it towards something deeper. This language can also help guests at Webber Street, who have previously experienced abuse, understand that not all discipline is a form of punishment.

4. Use the language of “we” to explain sin and identity

Football fans constantly say “we”. “We won”, “we lost”, “we played well”.

Even though they were not on the pitch, they identified with the team. That idea helps explain something big that can often go misunderstood by those who don’t yet know Jesus.

Even someone attending the Webber Street Bible Study for the first time can grasp this theological concept if they are a football fan.

The Bible teaches that humanity shares in sin through Adam. That can feel abstract, but the concept of shared identity is already familiar through football.

Just as fans speak as part of a team, Scripture speaks of us as part of a bigger story. It creates a bridge from everyday language to deeper truth.

5. Let football point beyond itself

Football can easily become everything. Identity, purpose, confidence. Charles experienced that.

“When injury took the game away, everything else began to fall apart,” he says. “It revealed how much I had built my life on it.

“Now, football is no longer my foundation. It is something I use, not something that defines me.”

This shift in perspective can be powerful. Charles’ identity was tied to football, but many of the Webber Street guests have had their identity tied to their homelessness. When people see that your identity is not tied to their wins or their losses , it raises questions. It points beyond the game to something more secure.