For Player and Designer Marco Jacques, Soccer Is an Art

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hen Marco Jacques touches a soccer ball, heads turn. For Jacques, nothing outdoors is off limits; everything can be a stage to sharpen and show off his skills as a street-style soccer player and artist. One of the newest members of the San Francisco City Football Club team, Jacques was crowned “Man of the Match” in July 2024. At 24 years old, with a whole career behind him, Jacques is carving a new legacy for himself. Whether he’s juggling a ball down a runway, scoring breathtaking goals or designing clothes for his streetwear brand, Joga Jax, Jacques’ love for the game is enlivening.

On a recent Monday night at San Francisco’s Crocker Amazon Park, Jacques jogs over to the basketball courts. As the sun sets, he and his longtime friend Rei Dorwart, another local soccer legend, transform the court into a street-style soccer clinic for youth, an offshoot of Dorwart’s organization, Futbol by the Bay. Ditching the grass for the courts allows the players to develop the skills to become fluent in artistic, fast-paced moves that set street-style apart from mainstream soccer. As a final touch, Jacques climbs the fence to hang the banner with the FBTB logo, which he helped design.

Like many creatives, Jacques is multidimensional. In conversation, he appears soft spoken and careful with his words. With the kids, he playfully coaxes out their confidence. But when it’s his turn to hop in a game, he trades the thoughtful demeanor for a fiercer presence and sharp tongue, unleashing a lifetime of practice.

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orn and raised in San Francisco by Spanish and Italian parents, Jacques was taught to love the sport early in life. That love blossomed into an electric career. At 13, he was scouted to play for the San Jose Earthquakes Academy. At 18, he went on to play for a team in Naples, Italy. But after a few months, he returned to the States to play Division I soccer at Grand Canyon University in Arizona. It was an opportunity that a lot of his peers dreamed of, but Jacques couldn’t help but feel like he had fumbled the chance of a lifetime.

“I was really hard on myself,” he reflects. “I developed a really bad eating disorder, and I had to deal with just feeling like I had failed. I wasn’t giving myself any slack, I was not tapping into that joy of the game. I felt like I wasn’t enough.”

Yet, when he reflects on that challenging time, he doesn’t have regrets. He spent time away from the ball, recuperating among family, and eventually found his way back to his love for the game. Looking back, he says that time prepared him for the role he has carved for himself today. “At the end of the day, life and family and community and our good friends and our other passions, that’s what makes us ‘us,’” he reflects. “It’s not necessarily what you’re good at or what people know you for.”

It’s this love that Jacques passes on to his mentees, some of whom show up for Futbol by the Bay’s clinic after seeing Jacques’ gravity-defying moves on Instagram. When I visit on a recent evening, the four coaches split up, and Jacques sets up a training session on the left side of the courts. His style and confidence is electric, and many of the participants are inspired to find their own version of his flare. They watch him, trying to figure out how he moves the ball so fluidly. His encouragement melts away their fear. The pride in his face is evident as the young players attempt his moves. As he guides them, it’s easy to see that he’s still connected to his younger self, who fell in love with the ball and decided to commit his life to cultivating that love.

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utbol by the Bay is a platform that Dorwart founded after spending years away from home playing for a D1 school, and later, on teams abroad. Upon returning to the Bay, he realized that the sport and the players animating its culture weren’t getting the love they deserved. FBTB was initially a platform to highlight street-style soccer, and it has since evolved into an entity that runs adult leagues, youth clinics, one-on-one tournaments, off-season college/pro pick-up games — plus a line of artfully designed merch.

Dorwart and Jacques have known each other since high school; they bonded as two of the few San Francisco kids playing at an elite level. But it wasn’t until they both returned home from abroad that their paths converged. Dorwart recognized Jacques’ passion for design and reached out to see if he’d create a fresh logo for the emerging soccer brand (Jacques worked with Genevieve Godson on a stylized take on the San Francisco skyline). Today, Jacques and Dorwart work together off the field, creating clothing and merch that exemplifies the culture and players they grew up admiring.

In June 2024, the two friends competed in a street-style African Cup in Paris, representing the Bay Area alongside Neighborhood Sports Club. In Paris, Jacques felt a vibrancy he could never seem to find in the Bay. It wasn’t just about the players and the talent, it was about the crowd, who were as invested in the outcome of the game as those competing. Jacques and Dorwart vowed to bring that energy back home.

Once they returned to San Francisco, Dorwart invited Jacques to help him coach aspiring street-style players — a vision that has evolved into the weekly evening clinic. They encourage the players to get creative. “It really gives players an opportunity to express themselves,” Dorwart says. “That’s how I was able to develop my confidence and my comfort on the ball, is by just playing so much on the streets with my friends and my classmates. That’s how Marco and I bond.”

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atching Jacques and Dorwart tag-team clinics, pick-up games and events, their almost telepathic communication makes their bond evident. It is a friendship anchored in a profound love for the city and sport that raised them. In a time when San Francisco, like much of the Bay, is being criticized for what it lacks and what it has lost, Jacques and Dorwart are contributing to a culture rooted in creativity that can uplift the next generation.

That includes ten-year-old Ravi Griffin, who has been participating in the clinics for a few months. It’s where he eagerly asks his father to take him to train. He appreciates the fast paced nature of the clinics, without the pressure to perform. “There’s no one scouting you, or watching you. I play more freely, I get to play how I want,” he says.

His father, Leonard Griffin, is a former professional soccer player and current head coach of the UC Berkeley men’s soccer team, and organizes the San Francisco Soccer Camp. He sees the positive impact the clinic has had on his son, who eagerly rushes over to the basketball court where FBTB sets up the clinic every Monday night.

Griffin views Jacques’ passion for the game as a way to instill that joy in the next generation. “I’m a teacher of the game as well, so I love coming and watching these young coaches and artists do their thing,” says Griffin. “You can just see Marco’s passion for the game, especially when he gets out there and plays. He’s got a crazy skill set. You can see the joy that he has for the game. The way he plays when he gets out with the kids. He just looks like he’s doing it for all the right reasons.”

At the end of the clinic, all of the participants circle around Jacques as he juggles the ball. His foot gracefully flicks it as he quickly pivots between tricks. Still sweaty from practice, the kids look up at him, entranced by the magic before them. Jacques switches to a golf ball, a task that seems to defy logic. The budding players applaud. In fifteen years, one of the young people sitting cross legged on the basketball court might remember this moment at Crocker Amazon Park, and cite it as the origin of their own soccer journey.

Beneath the bravado, Jacques wants people to play the way they did as children. Working hard for the sake of joy, not suffering. Reminding us that sometimes life is as simple as loving something enough to let it change you. “My career is kind of a sacrifice. I could easily be playing, struggling to play at low-level professional tiers,” he reflects. “I’m not doing that because I know what I’m doing is going to help the next generation. They’re gonna see Joga Jax doing bicycle kicks, and then they’re not gonna be scared to try new things. That’s what I want to do for soccer.”