‘This game humbles every single person who plays it’ – footgolf has given soccer players a new life, and they can’t stop playing it

Bart Wojtyla was one of the thousands – if not millions – of players chewed up and spat out by professional soccer. Originally from Poland, he moved to Chicago as a child. And then the journey started. He tried out for clubs back home, bouncing from team to team in unsuccessful trials. A flirtation with German football followed. 

He had a go in second division Polish football, but the team went broke. College soccer was his last hope. He had his moments, but, like for so many, the MLS call never came. There he was, in his mid 20s, out of soccer, with nowhere to go professionally. 

That’s when his story gets weird. Wojtyla ended up in Hollywood, working odd acting gigs. And just when it seemed that soccer – at least, in a traditional sense – had passed him by, he got an unexpected call. “

A friend of mine was like, ‘Hey, another one of my buddies who’s in the soccer league in LA is hosting this little get together for soccer players to introduce them to this game,’” Wojtyla recalled. 

And the name of that game? 

“It’s called footgolf.” 

Wojtyla loved it from the first kick. That day, he played all 18 holes, skipped the award ceremony, and went back to play another round. Fast forward, and he is now captain of the United States footgolf team. Yes, that’s a real thing. 

He is now part of a weird and wonderful soccer-ing subculture, one that takes those who can no longer play the beautiful game at the professional level and gives them a new platform to kick a ball around. 

And it’s entirely addictive. 

“It’s like having an itch, and someone says, ‘Don’t scratch it.’ But you just keep kind of scratching at it,” he told GOAL.