Football, friendships and a focus on the future
Donnie Nicholson at the Sacramento 2023 Homeless World Cup as part of the photography team. Donnie played at the Mexico 2012 Homeless World Cup
Words: Isobel Irvine
Images: Anita Milas and Dan Higginson
California resident Donnie Nicholson is about to take part in his third Homeless World Cup. Having packed his playing kit for the event in Mexico in 2012, his luggage for Sacramento 2023 - and now Oslo 2025 - comprises lenses, camera bodies and filters. That thirteen-year transfer of emotional baggage into physical baggage has been nothing short of inspirational.
Born on a US military base in Japan, just as the Vietnam War was ending, Donnie turned to football as a constant in a childhood spent moving around a succession of Air Force bases. Following his mother into the services, Donnie signed up for the Navy and went on to excel as an avionics technician in Virginia. Transfer to a new duty station triggered anxiety then depression – in a culture where asking for help was an anathema – and a brush with drugs to alleviate his situation.
“My recourse, because it was popular at the time, was to take MDMA to help with the symptoms because I was told it would help relieve my stress,” he explains. “Next day I felt such relief, I could stop worrying I was bumping into concrete walls all the time and the mental clarity was there – but it’s something I was not meant to be taking.”
Donnie confided his situation in his senior officer who assured him he would be looked after. A follow-up urine analysis unsurprisingly found substances, his right to representation at the ensuing enquiry was denied, he was given a non-judicial punishment and summarily dismissed from the military.
“The captain never opened my file, never saw my leadership decisions, never read my commendations and I spent the next 24 years correcting that wrong.”
Donnie in action at the Sacramento 2023 Homeless World Cup - from player to photographer - Donnie has a special connection with the Homeless World Cup
Suddenly a homeless civilian, issues with family support led to a downward spiral, attempted suicide and a move across country. Entry into the shelter system in New York and the discovery of Street Soccer USA rekindled his childhood love of football. He also began to help coach the women’s team at a shelter in Brooklyn – “Anything related to soccer, I’d volunteer and take the train!”
Selection for the US team for the Mexico 2012 Homeless World Cup ultimately set Donnie on a whole new direction in life.
“The personal relationships I’d developed with the photographers from the tournament influenced my decision on how to express myself using imagery, poetry and a study of realism,” he recalls. “I started a Facebook page in March 2013, after a friend lent me a camera to photograph some games. He looked at the images, thought they were good – then he gave me the camera.
“I was trying to use soccer to cope with life but with the camera... it’s an expression of something deeper, especially when you’re playing with light which can really affect moods.”
Photography helped him to raise the funds to re-start his education and in 2023 he graduated with a BA in Art History & Studio Arts from San Francisco State University, while continuing to volunteer with Street Soccer USA. That, in turn, led to his second Homeless World Cup ‘cap’ – this time as a tournament photographer in Sacramento.
“That was a bit surreal,” he muses. “As the opening celebrations were about to happen, with players, volunteers and Sacramento State University staff all together for the first time, I had my camera with me but I was just taking it all in. Then Mel [Young, Homeless World Cup Foundation President and Co-founder] walks up to me and says hello.
“I hadn’t seen Mel since Mexico but it was like it was yesterday. We started talking, eating our plates of food, and just to share that space with him and do something absolutely normal really grounded me for the rest of the tournament.
“I never knew what to expect from Mel other than friendship and kindness, but for him to come up to me, not making a big deal out of it, was so comforting.”
Donnie with fellow Homeless World Cup photographer Anita Milas ahead of the first ever Cities Ending Homelessness event held in Sacramento in 2023
Working at the tournament stirred up a host of emotions for Donnie who couldn’t but help contrast 2012 and 2023, gauging where he’d been to where he was now; the people he recognised from before and the new friends he was making.
A real ‘wow’ moment came, he recalls, while attending the first Cities Ending Homelessness Forum in the Californian capital during the tournament, while listening to former USWNT player Hope Solo.
“She spoke about her relationship with her father and how he had shown up consistently for her during college, and that he was a homeless veteran. That hit me to my core. I don’t hear many folk advocating for veterans on the street. We know they’re there but people don’t talk about them - it was like she was talking about me and my situation at the time.”
Seeing his own struggle reflected in participants in 2023 was also something which hit home. “I was doing a lot of [photo] editing by myself, just me and my thoughts, and all the emotion in those images was coming back to me. Even if I didn’t recall what the folks were saying, to see how they were delivering their emotions in a physical sense, reading their facial expressions, meant I was reliving my own moments from that time.”
Consequently it took Donnie a while to process what he’d experienced, something he tried to do after the tournament through social media, creating reels and posting images explaining how he’d been feeling, to connect with others. He also jumped straight back into work - after graduating he volunteered as a museum technician with USS Hornet Sea, Air and Space Museum, a coach with the Up2Us programme and with Street Soccer USA – all the while, still dealing with his case with the Veterans Administration.
Having separated from the Services in May 2020 and diagnosed with PTSD in 2022 he was eventually compensated for his injuries in late 2024.
“I found out their decision a few days before my 49th birthday,” he relates. “Many people were involved in making that happen; the Pentagon’s decision to correct my service record and the Veterans Administration’s acceptance of my disability claim, my case is now closed, but…is it easier to get on with life?
“Imagine being in jail for 24 years, then being let out. I may not physically have been in prison, but in my head I was. Now I have to convince myself I’m a ‘free’ person and I can do as I choose, but I’m still a bit on the defensive.”
Donnie and good friend Peter Barr who passed away in 2024
Following his experience in Sacramento, Donnie is now pouring his work energy into photography and, though looking forward to being behind the lens as an official photographer again in Oslo, his enthusiasm at meeting up with new friends made in 2023 is tinged with sadness.
One of his staunchest allies over the years – long-standing supporter, trustee and Board Member of Homeless World Cup – Peter Barr, will be missing. Soon after Seoul 2024, following a short illness, Peter sadly passed away.
“I first met Peter in Mexico 2012, we talked for a few minutes and immediately after I was interviewed live on BBC Radio. Peter was so easy to talk to I didn’t realise that he was teeing me up to speak to a global audience!” Donnie laughs.
“We kept in touch after that. Even when I left soccer to concentrate on the Veterans Administration stuff, Peter would always check in with me and that’s something I’ll always value.
“I hadn’t seen him in person between Mexico and Sacramento 2023, and I’d forgotten how tall he was! He was the same warm and inviting person I’d met in 2012, though.
“One of the things we spoke about was mental health because it was personal for both of us. I wasn’t speaking to my father for a while and Peter filled that role. I don’t know if he knew that, how important these conversations were – he was really a stand-in father figure.”
Though aware he hadn’t been in the best of health, Peter’s passing came as a shock. When Donnie realised what he’d been doing on the day Peter died, that also caused him to catch his breath.
“That day I suddenly felt under the weather, decided to get out and went to an amusement park rather than sit at home and feel sorry for myself. I had such a good time. I’d driven there in my little car - the one I always complained to Peter was such a struggle to maintain, but that he would always encourage me to persevere with.
“Peter was my friend, someone who would always advocate for me. My life has been distant relationships at best, so for anyone to take the opportunity to invest their time in me felt like a gift. Every conversation I had with Peter felt like a gift.
“I’d often feel I should give something back to him, thank him for his efforts. I still do.”
Donnie will be going some way to doing that in Norway’s capital this month, capturing the action and emotions of a whole new set of Homeless World Cup participants through the camera lens.
“I’m really excited for what those players are about to experience,” he enthuses. “The connections they’re about to make, the impact, the memories they’ll take back with them.
“This is not something that everyone gets to do, even pro players – how often do you get the chance to represent your country?
“It’s going to be a life-changing experience not just for the players but the staff, people attending as spectators and everyone watching around the world. I’m just so happy I can still be part of it.”