During the summer of 2025, more than 500 people came together to play football and share the gospel in Seville and A Coruña, Spain. The tournaments were open to local churches that put together teams of both Jesus followers and non-believers.
Rebeca (Spain) organised the event for OM in Spain after seeing football outreaches work in other countries.
In A Coruña, together with a volunteer from SportsLink, a ministry of OM, Rebecca proposed a football tournament to the pastors’ association, encouraging the churches to work together.
“I said that OM in Spain wanted to encourage evangelism — something to reach out to the community in A Coruña to spread the gospel,” she said. “I know that evangelical churches in Spain struggle with money because we are very tiny, so I said that I will give a prize of money for them to invest in evangelism — €500 for first place, €250 for second and €125 for third.”
In Seville, the tournament was organised in a similar way, but without prizes, as the churches there already have many evangelistic resources. Each player received a gift bag containing a Gospel of John and a bottle of water, and there was a simple presentation of the gospel during the event.
Participating churches helped with the logistics of the tournament, and a total of 20 teams from 16 churches entered across both cities. Each team included three or four non-believers, and the tournament rules emphasised fair play and no swearing.
God at work
At both tournaments, the staff at the pitches were impressed by how polite players and fans were and how clean they left the facilities. “There was no swearing, only good fair play, because they were not like hot or fighting. One man was so impressed, and he said, ‘I’m not used to this, you know. You are welcome to do this more often.'”
Two days before the tournament, one of the four referees had to drop out. Although they were prepared to proceed with only three referees, the morning of the tournament, a man approached Rebecca and said he was a referee and could help them.
“He told me his story; about how he used to be a believer and go to church, but now he’s having a hard time. He’s homeless, he is living on the streets but he is coming closer to the Lord,” shared Rebecca. “We were able to give him €50 to rent a room and sleep properly for the night. He was crying, and I said, ‘I think God is calling you back to Him.’ We will be in contact, and hope that he will join a local church and put his life in order.
“That was maybe the highlight, you know, that God has a purpose in this. Also, small testimonies of people who never go to church, but will go to a football tournament. And of course, it is an open door for them to hear the gospel.”
Earning trust
The tournament marked the first time OM has held an outreach in A Coruña, in the northwest of the country, and the second time an outreach has been done in Seville, in the south.
Rebeca said outreach takes time in Spain, but she is pleased to see progress being made. “I have been living here for 10 years and this is the first event I’ve done,” she said. “You need a lot of time until people trust you, so this is like my open door and hopefully we are talking to do it next year as well. We are having ideas about how we can do it, maybe as a whole day, more like a festival, but still with the football tournament included.”
Planting seeds
In the meantime, outreach work will continue in A Coruña thanks to the prize money. The pastor of the winning team’s church plans to use the winnings to support weekly Tuesday football activities, where the majority of attendees do not know Jesus yet. The money will purchase equipment for the matches and cover the costs of a gathering for participants and their families.
There are also plans to host a football tournament in Porto do Son, a small, difficult-to-reach village in the north of Galicia, where a church retreat will be held. The plan is for the church group to invite people from the village to play football and watch a presentation of the gospel.
