At the time of the assassination, Jürgen was living in Medellín, where he was about to begin his Ph.D. in Public Health.
One day, he happened upon two rival gangs walking onto a community football field, where they left their guns at the entrance and played a friendly match. It was at this moment that Jürgen decided to leave his Ph.D. program and pursue football as a tool for social change.
He created Fútbol por la Paz (Football for Peace), a youth project with an unconventional football program: teams included both genders and disputes were settled by the players themselves. As a result, players began to build relationships off the field, leading to a decrease in violence and an increase in social mobility.
Despite the success of Fútbol por la Paz, Jürgen realized that there was hardly any collaboration between organizations that used football as a tool to tackle social issues.
In 2002, Jürgen founded streetfootballworld, a global organization that connects grassroots football initiatives and amplifies their impact.
Today, with a global network of over 120 organizations and 6,000 professionals working in over 80 countries, streetfootballworld has collectively raised nearly €1 billion.