''Wayne Rooney's Street Striker'' (also known as ''Coke Zero Street Striker'' due to a sponsorship deal with

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

) was a British

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series that was broadcast on

Sky1 Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

and in high definition on Sky1 HD. The prize for the winners of the competition included trips to a football training camp in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final.

Background

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

plays as a striker for

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and the England national team. He is one of the most recognised footballers in England and world football. He grew up in

Croxteth Croxteth is a suburb of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Although housing in the area is predominantly modern, the suburb has some notable history. At the United Kingdom 2011 Census it had a population of 14,561. ...

, an inner-city part of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and practised his skills in the streets near his house, and it was this upbringing that inspired the show. The idea of ''Wayne Rooney's Street Striker'' came about in 2008 and the first series was filmed and broadcast in October and November of that year around the area of

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

just outside

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. The aim was to find a talented young footballer who could perform a range of tricks.

Format

The show takes the form of a contest to find the most skillful

street football The terms street football and street soccer (American and Canadian English) encompass a number of informal varieties of association football. These informal pick up games do not necessarily follow the requirements of a formal game of footbal ...

er in the United Kingdom. It is fronted by Rooney and former professional footballer

Andy Ansah Andrew Owusu Ansah (born 19 March 1969) is an English actor and former professional footballer. Playing career He played for six Football League teams in his career, most notably Southend United, where he played 180 games and scored 38 goals be ...

. England women's team footballer

Sue Smith Sue Smith may refer to: * Sue Smith (politician) (born 1951), member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council *Sue Smith (footballer) (born 1979), English footballer *Sue Smith (trainer) (born 1948), British horse trainer *Sue Smith (writer) Sue Smi ...

was also involved for the first two series. During the first two series of ''Street Striker'', young hopefuls around the UK were put to their test at trials, and only 24 talented footballers made it to the television show to appear on the episodes and perform in front of Rooney. In the third series, the search for the UK's most talented street striker was bigger than ever, with massive open-auditions held in both Manchester and Birmingham. Talented youngsters were also scouted from numerous eleven-a-side football clubs and five-a-side Power League teams all over the country. Ansah scouted all around the UK for talent, and brought to Rooney 100 talented young footballers who had the potential to be crowned ''Wayne Rooney's Street Striker'' 2010. Rooney had also upped the age limit to 16- to 24-year-olds, he wanted better talent, ability, mental strength and attitude than what he had in the previous two series of Street Striker. In the first episode, it shows the Top 100 Street Footballers of the UK being whittled down to just 20, who would then go on and perform in very difficult street football challenges in front of Wayne Rooney and be judged by him. This year contestants had to perform in front of massive crowds, which only added to the pressure to perform well. Contestants who made it through to the Final 20 in Street Striker 2010 included River, Hollie, Ricky, Mamus, Rosie, Alando, Lee, Jay, Jamie, Shpresim, Shannon, Daniel, Olly, Charlotte, Chris, Craig and others. Ricky won. The prize for the winner of the first series, Travis Beckford was a trip to a football training camp in

, while the second series winner, Ashleigh Goddard, won tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

. It was confirmed that the prize for the winner of the third series who was Jack Erritt from

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, Crawl ...

would win a trip to

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, where they will visit street football projects in the

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

community. They also get the chance to see the professional side Swansea FC play a match and perform some of their skills on the pitch at half-time.

Broadcast

The first series consisted of three episodes but the second and third series had one extra episode. The first series was broadcast on Sky1 on Sunday evenings at 7pm, beginning on 30 November 2008. The second series began on 8 November 2009 and ran for four weeks. The third series started airing on Sky1 and Sky1 HD on 14 November 2010.

References

External links

* {{Sky1 Sky UK original programming 2000s British reality television series 2010s British reality television series 2008 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings Association football reality television series 2000s British sports television series 2010s British sports television series