SITTING in the crowd before a league game between Hamilton and Falkirk, Paul Chalmers was watching the opposing goalies go through their pre-match warm-ups. And that simple ritual struck a chord deep within him.

Chalmers at the time had not long entered rehab. He’d got involved with drugs at a young age - heroin, methadone, “all that stuff”.

“I didn’t know how to get clean, didn’t know how to break the cycle, didn’t know how to change my life, so I went to rehab” he said. “I liked playing football when I was young. Up to maybe about High School age I played in goals. I wasn’t bad, I enjoyed it. That fell right by the wayside as drugs took over. I had dreams when I was younger of playing football, all that stuff.

“So I’m in rehab, and part of the programme there is, we play football two or three times a week. Street Soccer Scotland would come down.

“I was in rehab the first month, about 30 days, and we got to go to Hamilton Accies against Falkirk. At this time I’m just starting to come back down to reality a wee bit, and before the game I’m watching the goalkeepers warming up, I was watching them do their drills, and I just got a really strange feeling, like a memory - I used to love doing that stuff, I used to love playing in goal. I want to do that again. I’d love to do that at some level, in some form.”

Today, the 33-year-old - now glowing with heath - will be one of the stars of Scotland’s men’s team at the Homeless World Cup - which aims to lift people out of homeless and addiction through sport. The team will play Hong Kong in the opening game of the week-long tournament, which has seen Glasgow’s George Square turned into a mini-football arena.

“Coming up here, being involved in a team, having team-mates, feeling included and part of something, feeling a bond, cameraderie, being encouraged by other people and then encouraging other people as well - it’s really hard to put into words what it means to me that type of thing.”

So far the Homeless World Cup - which was founded in Scotland - has been held in 13 different countries, beginning in Austria in 2003 through to the Netherlands last year. This is the second time the tournament has been held in Scotland.

Chalmers has now found full-time work in the Scottish Drugs Forum’s trainee addiction worker programme. “I’m being trained to work in rehab. It’s amazing, astounding that I can end up doing this, coming from where I was. Football and sport has reignited something in me," he says.

Mel Young, co-founder and President of the Homeless World Cup, says: "We first had the idea for the Homeless World Cup in 2001 and it started two years later. Young is also a noted social entrepreneur who co-founded The Big Issue in Scotland and is currently chair of sportscotland. "It was invented in Scotland but it has spread around the world.

"The ingredients are the simplicity of football. Everybody understands the game. Even people who don't like it understand it. You can be really good at it or really bad at it, but that does not matter and you can play anywhere. It's like an international language.

"We are working with the most excluded, the poorest of the poor, but our way of communicating with them is with a ball. Even in the direst of circumstances you can kick a ball around and for a few moments or an hour you can feel good about yourself.

"Sometimes we intellectualise problems in the world so much. Yes, there are very complex and deep-rooted problems, but the answer is sometimes staring us in the face

"I'm not saying that kicking a ball around will change your life: it's not as simple as that. But that is the message: we use football to encourage people to transform their lives."

Young adds: "The Glasgow event is going to be wonderful but it's about more than just that. It's about the impact, about changing your life.

"I know people who have changed their lives completely. It's not like a fairytale or anything. Sometimes the media has asked, 'are any of these people now playing professional football?'. The answer is, 'yes, one or two', but that's not the point, actually. There are others who have become waiters, or bus-drivers, or who are now studying at college.

"The point is, they have worked extremely hard to move themselves away from that excluded world and are now part of our world. So for us, what matters is the impact of football, and what it can lead to.

"That is what is gratifying for us. We all put a lot of hours into organising the Homeless World Cup but it's not like a job. At the end of the day, we have a definite purpose in mind."

The Homeless World Cup's partners operate in 420 cities, reaching 100,000 homeless people every year. Research indicates that the Homeless World Cup and its partners have impacted on the lives of one million homeless people so far around the globe.

From refugees to care home kids: Scottish stories from the Homeless World Cup

THE Homeless World Cup in Glasgow will also feature a new team: Street Soccer United, composed exclusively of refugees.

Founder Mel Young says: “None of the players are Scottish. A number are seeking asylum status. The players originate from a variety of countries including Iran, Somalia, Senegal and Eritrea. The players have all been attending weekly Street Soccer Scotland training sessions.”

The team includes Abdul Njie, 27, from Senegal. “I lived in Greece for six years and I left there from France, and from France to Glasgow.

“When I came here I didn’t know anybody ,” he said. But in time he heard about Street Soccer Scotland, and thought it would make him happy as he used to play football back home. Abdul talks about the friends he has made from different countries, from Honduras to Eritrea.

The tournament itself features teams from all over the world: Chile, Kyrgystan, Ivory Coast, Cambodia, Costa Rica.

Today’s opening matches see the Scotland’s women’s team take on Norway. Every player has a personal story to tell. Scotland's Stephanie Tweed, 21, talks openly about how she never really had much structure in her life when she was growing up.

“I’ve been in care most of my days. I’ve never had what most people would say was the perfect childhood.” When she was 15 or 16, she moved back to her native Edinburgh “and started taking drugs and hanging about with the wrong people.

“For years I just jumped about. I never really had a place to stay then I finally got my own flat but it wasn’t working - I couldn’t pay my bills, I couldn’t be a functioning member of society.” She ended up in a homeless hostel and began addressing the question of why she was using drugs. She was also medically diagnosed as having a borderline personality disorder.

The hostel’s service days meant that Tweed went to football and gym sessions. She discovered Street Soccer Scotland and was happy to rediscover the sport she had first played at primary school.

She is full of praise for the hostel and Street Soccer Scotland for helping to turn her life around. The latter spotted her football talent and encouraged her. “Football has given me structure and focus and a belief in myself,” she says. After the tournament she aims to start a coaching job with Street Soccer in Edinburgh.

“As much as I’m looking forward to the world cup and everything surrounding this, I’m so happy I know I’ve got something after it.” Football remains her passion, and of her coaching job she says: “It’s something I could never have imagined a year-and-a-half ago.” Longer-term, her ultimate ambition is to become a personal trainer.