The 45-year-old is bidding to bring back the 'jumpers for goalposts' culture

For Cheshire resident Ritchie Beckett, like so many people, a kick-about has always been one of life's pleasures. "Jumpers for goalposts. You get given a ball, and you're away..." he explains.

The football fanatic spent hours upon hours of his youth and young adulthood playing with his mates on fields around Stockport, where he was born and brought up. However, Ritchie, 45, who now lives in Alderley Edge, believes an addiction to screens means the joy of people kicking a ball around with their family or their pals is being lost.

As a result he has now come up with a novel way to try and inspire more kids to take up the game. And it's gone on to become a social media sensation and morphed into his full-time vocation.

It all started when Ritchie was working for the online food delivery firm Deliveroo, reports the MEN. "I ran a big sales and account management team, and I said, 'Wouldn't it be amazing to fill up a football pitch somewhere in the UK with sort of tens of thousands of Deliveroo- branded footballs?'

"Because at the time we were sponsoring England and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), so we were sort of involved in that space, and I thought it'd be something amazing to do on a grassroots level, where kids could just come and get these footballs for free, and we would drone record it all."

At that time, it never came to fruition, but Ritchie says, 'the idea never left me.' In what he says 'started as a bit of fun', in February this year, he dug into his own pocket to buy a first batch of balls which he and his two sons, William and Thomas, then dropped at local parks and playing fields for people to pick up and take home with them, free of charge.

"We used to write #FoundFootball on them, and we'd take a picture and post on social media about it, and people could come and guess where we'd left them." Ritchie played amateur and then semi-professional football for several sides in and around Stockport before going on to manage a team in the Stockport District Sunday League.

His first order was for 10 balls, which he deposited on playing fields he used to frequent whilst growing up in Cheadle Hulme. "Growing up, but I didn't always have a football, you know, and I was football mad," Ritchie said. "I'm sure my parents did buy me lots of footballs, but, you know, you lose them, they get stolen, or they get worn out or popped. So, actually, just having a football in the first place is an easy way to get people into playing the game.

"There are a lot of children out there who, maybe their parents aren't into football, and that's fine. But actually, they would have been a natural talent at it, because sometimes people are just a natural. But because they're not given a ball early enough, they're not really ever getting to a good level," he said. "So this is a way of kids discovering football, and you know, they may never have got that opportunity before.

"We're trying to get kids active. and get them off their screens," he continued. "Technology is amazing, but kids are spending far too much time on their phones and on screens. We want to get people using the parks and playing fields. We've got some amazing spaces in this part of the world, and want them to be utilised and let kids be kids and have fun.

"In 20 years, you might have one of the kids who found one of our balls representing England. You just don't know. There are endless possibilities."

Ritchie said the country has a 'great footballing pyramid' but that it is 'normally the parents that are taking kids to a club' where they are then 'coached, trained and developed.' "There aren't many fun ways of getting involved in the game," he said. "And we've got to invest heavily now, because we're supposed to be the home of football, but we haven't won a major tournament since 1966.

"So something is going wrong in this country. You only need to look around the parks and playing fields, they're not as busy as they were in the 90s, or even the noughties, because there are more distractions now. Kids have got this great technology. AI will also amplify that. I'm not dead against technology; I just think there needs to be the right balance."

He has now handed out around 300 Samba or Infinity balls, and just a few weeks ago, did his biggest single drop of 100 balls in his hometown of Stockport. They have also done drops around the region, including in Piccadilly Gardens and Depot Mayfield Park in Manchester city centre as well as Bury and Wigan amongst others places.

Before last month's Manchester derby, lifelong Manchester United fan Ritchie pledged to drop some balls close to the stadium of the winner, and spent the evening leaving balls at Bradford Park near the Etihad following City's 1-0 win. He has also had the backing of celebrities such as former boxing champion Frank Bruno, who did a drop for them in Southend, Essex and former Manchester United, Leeds United and Stoke City player Danny Pugh who has also lent a hand.

"I'm about a thousand quid in personally. That's fine as it's something I love doing and I want to give back, but obviously I can't keep doing it...my wife will kill me," he said. Ritchie, who has now made the project his full-time job, has registered Found Football as a not-for-profit organization, has come to an arrangement with ball supplier ChildrensFootball.com, and has secured funding from a number of sponsors, which he hopes will allow him to take the scheme nationwide.

Ahead of the 2028 European Championships, being held in the UK and Ireland, Ritchie wants to take the scheme around the country, in and around host cities.

"We might end up getting to a size where we can actually deliver 1,000 balls on a pitch somewhere," he said. "It'd have to be the right location, where we know there's a need for it. But yeah, we definitely want to try and do as many footballs as we can over the next couple of years."