Panna!

To a street football player, the most excruciating disgrace imaginable is when an opponent passes him by playing the ball between his legs: a panna. The larger the crowd watching this happen, the bigger the humiliation. Panna came into being on one of Amsterdam’s many urban football fields and is inextricably bound to the street. The game is not about goals or team performance. It’s about showing off as an individual player, flaunting your tricks and making fun of your opponents.
However popular street football players can become, there isn’t much money to be made on the street. Many players dream of a career with a professional footballl club.

Mitchell and Said, the main characters in Panna!, grew up in Geuzenveld, a district in the western part of Amsterdam. Both are extremely talented boys, who have won many street football tournaments. They want to succeed in football and see this as a means to escape the street’s many temptations. To achieve that goal, talent alone isn’t enough. They will have to be persistent and show tremendous will-power. But these boys grew up with street codes that are at right angles with the discipline and character needed to become successful top-class sportsmen.