In big man US football league, guys score a different kind of goal

Participants in the "Man vs Fat Soccer" weight-loss program play a soccer game, in Houston, Texas (RONALDO SCHEMIDT)

(RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/AFP)

In a football league of big men trying to lose weight, the five-a-side teams feature names like OB City, Big Bananas and Heavy Touch FC.

And players can score before the game even starts, standing on a scale and winning goal points for chipping away at their weight problems.

Last week there was a game in which the scoreboard read 11-0 before anyone had even kicked the ball.

Welcome to Man vs. Fat Soccer, a tongue-in-cheek Texas league that is thriving as Houston prepares to join cities elsewhere in the United States in hosting World Cup games, along with Mexico and Canada.

One of the players is Alberto Escalante, 28, who put on weight after a car accident left him temporarily paralyzed from the waist down.

He tipped the scales at 168 kilos (370 lb) when he signed up for this league of heavy men poking fun at themselves. In three months he has lost 15 kilos.

When Escalante first joined the eight-team league he was embarrassed to be part of a squad called OB City and did not want to tell people.

"But now it's funny and I enjoy it," he told AFP, proud to sport the team's bright red jersey.

Of his weight loss, he said he cannot yet notice it in the mirror but he feels better.

"I'm not that tired. I'm not as agitated as I was before. And health-wise, it's been helping me manage my food intake," said Escalante.

- Kilos shed, points earned -

It is Tuesday night and the teams gather to play football. One called Los Porcinos -- porcino means pig or porcine in Spanish -- wears pink shirts reminiscent of Lionel Messi's Inter Miami as it warms up.

The Big Bananas, sporting yellow, practice taking shots on goal. Heavy Touch FC's men wait on the sidelines for their turn to play.

Then there is AFC Thickmond, a nod to the team AFC Richmond from the "Ted Lasso" series, and a side called MSG, a name that smacks of the common flavor enhancer.

This twice-a-week big man league draws on a similar phenomenon in Britain and comes as football gains popularity in the United States. Other chapters have sprung up in Florida, New York and other states.

It has overtaken the sport long considered the national pastime, baseball, and is now only behind American football and basketball, says a report by Ampere Analysis, a data and analytics firm, published in The Economist in late 2025.

But before the opening whistle can blow, everybody has to get weighed, even the guys sitting on the bench.

Zachary Beardsley, the league's health supervisor, said players who lose weight compared to the week before win points that go to their team. The more they slim down, the more points they accrue.

"You get more points the more guys on your team lose weight," he said.

So if a team's players for some reason fail to weigh in, or even to show up, it hurts.

"Like last week, we were already losing 11-0 before the game even started," said Roberto Rodriguez, 28, goalkeeper for Los Porcinos whose weight has gone from 134 kg to 110 kg in this league.

Cameron Roberts, who is 36 and works in corporate finance, has lost 31 kg and is now down to 116 kg. His parents are British and he hopes to travel to Dallas to see England play Croatia in the World Cup.

"You know, you can see just from this group of guys here, everybody's starting to get the buzz," he said of the world's premier sporting event, which starts June 11 and ends July 19.

Beardsley said the league is good for the players' heads and hearts, not just their waistlines, as they connect with each other.

"Even just being a part of this community, I think just improves the social lives, the emotional health of the men in the program," he said.

mav/dw/md