What are the Panna World Championships?
The Panna World Championships are Pannahouse’s annual international panna tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first edition took place in 2016 under the name Pannahouse Invitationals. In 2025, we celebrated the tenth edition. With the eleventh now completed in September 2026, the next decade has already begun.
At the heart of it is a game you can follow immediately: 3 minutes, 2 players, 1 ball. Score more goals than your opponent, or finish the match with a panna. Around those battles, the event brings together youth players, pros, women’s competition, groundmoves, music and a community that keeps coming back.
New to the game? Read what panna football is and how it works.
2025: the 10th Pannaversary
Players came from at least 32 countries for the anniversary. Some arrived to chase a title. Others came to reconnect with friends, test their skills or finally meet someone they had only watched online. The first match on the finals stage ended with a panna. It set the mood for the day.
Mehdi Amri won the pro title, beating Noah Kofi Collatz in the final. It was his second pro victory at our tournament, following his win in 2021. Years before either of those titles, he had won our youth competition in 2017. His story runs through much of the championship’s first decade.
Sarah Khiali took the women’s title with that late panna. Anna Panna also made history, becoming the first woman to reach the pro top 16 at our event. And Soufiane Bencok, our first pro champion back in 2016, returned to give a show. The anniversary brought different generations of the game together on one stage.
The semifinal between two players who grew up together
Before Noah reached the final, he faced Jacob Corneliusen. They had learned the game alongside each other. Now they were playing for a place in the biggest match of the weekend.
Their semifinal is a good place to start if you want to understand the appeal of competitive panna. Watch the footwork, the attempts, the changes of pace and how much each player has to read the other. It even goes to extra time. Stay with it for the panna.
Watch the 10th Pannaversary documentary
The matches tell you who won. The documentary takes you into the people and work behind those moments.
Younes Ghezzal was one of our early competitors. He later became a professional filmmaker, and returned to make 10th Pannaversary: A Decade of the Panna World Championships. When Kristoffer Liicht approached him about documenting the anniversary, Younes had already been thinking about doing it himself.
The film also reaches back to footage Maxwell Grummer made with Pannahouse in 2013. Amin Benmoumou’s words about how football changed his life connect those early days to the community that followed. An early player came back with a camera to tell the story of something he had helped build.
How the earlier editions shaped the event
Pannahouse existed before the championships. The local community was already taking shape when the first Invitationals brought international players to Copenhagen in 2016. Bencok won the pro competition, while Ali Jassem, known as Jasseminho, won the youth title.
In 2017, Ilyas Touba won the pro final against Jeand Doest. In 2018, Fatih beat Bencok with a golden goal, while Japan’s Shiou Morikawa took the youth title. Ahmed Rakaba became pro champion in 2019. Each edition brought different players and styles into the spotlight.
In 2020, Jasseminho became the first Danish pro champion at the event. Four years after his youth win, he was lifting the senior trophy. Mehdi’s pro win followed in 2021, before Touba took the title again in 2022.
By 2022, the event had grown into four days, with more than 120 players from over 26 countries at Street Under Buen. Qualification, finals, Battlegrounds and 3v3 gave people more time to play and get to know one another. In 2023, 146 players from more than 24 countries took part.
A bigger stage for women and the next generation
The first dedicated women’s tournament at our championships took place in 2023, with 18 players from seven countries. Sarah Khiali won it, alongside pro champion Amin Benmoumou and youth champion Pepijn van Pelt.
Anna Panna took the women’s title in 2024. That year, Anna and Dani also reached the youth finals stage alongside the boys. In 2025, Anna’s place in the pro top 16 pushed that story further.
The youth competition has its own history, from Jasseminho and Mehdi to Shiou and Pepijn. Following those players over the years is part of the experience. Someone you first watched in a youth match can return later as a pro contender, a coach or the person inspiring another child to start.
Pro champions, 2016–2026
| Year | Pro champion |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Soufiane Bencok |
| 2017 | Ilyas Touba |
| 2018 | Fatih |
| 2019 | Ahmed Rakaba |
| 2020 | Ali Jassem (Jasseminho) |
| 2021 | Mehdi Amri |
| 2022 | Ilyas Touba |
| 2023 | Amin Benmoumou |
| 2024 | Jacob Corneliusen |
| 2025 | Mehdi Amri |
| 2026 | Teun (PannaTwins) |
Women’s champions, 2023–2026
| Year | Women’s champion |
|---|---|
| 2023 | Sarah Khiali |
| 2024 | Anna Panna |
| 2025 | Sarah Khiali |
| 2026 | Anna Panna |
The culture around the cage
A championship weekend gives an online culture a place to meet. You can watch someone’s videos for months, then find yourself sharing a ball with them between matches. Players film clips together, exchange moves and take those ideas back to their own communities.
Pannahouse Battlegrounds gives another side of street football its stage: a battle format bringing football and dance together through groundmoves, rhythm and personal style. The 3v3 games bring players into teams. There are different ways to take part, even when the one-on-one competition is over.
2026: the next decade is already underway
The eleventh edition took place in September 2026. Teun of PannaTwins won the pro title, with Mads Munkholt second and Jacob Corneliusen third. Anna Panna won the women’s competition, and Walid (@walid.bahida) won the youth title.
Ten editions gave us plenty to look back on. The eleventh gave us new champions and another group of players with their own memories of Copenhagen. That is how the history keeps growing: people return, new people join, and the game keeps changing with them.
Start with a match. Then bring a ball.
Watch the documentary, pick a battle and notice the different ways people play. If it makes you want to try, that is a good place to start. You do not need to be ready for a world championship to become part of street football culture.
The entire Street Football Starter Pack is free to access in the Pannahouse Academy app. Use it to build your foundation, then find people to share it with. Every player on that stage had a first touch too.