Freestyle football

Last updated
Freestyle football
Football freestyle 2013 Masters epee t171023.jpg
Football freestyle demonstration at the 2013 Masters à l'Epée
Highest governing body World Freestyle Football Association [1]
Characteristics
ContactNo
Type Ball sport
Equipment Football
Presence
Olympic No

Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governing body for this sport is known as the World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA). [1] [2]

Contents

History

The art of freestyle football can be traced to games of Southeast Asia such as chinlone, jianzi and sepak takraw, which have been practised for 2,000 years. Fundamental freestyle tricks such as the 'Neck Stall' and 'Around The World' were first popularly performed in the West by circus performers, notably including Enrico Rastelli and Francis Brunn. [3] [4]

In the 1970s and 1980s, Argentine footballer Diego Maradona famously brought his freestyle 'Life is Life' warm-up to international attention while playing for SSC Napoli. The ability to freestyle, however, was widely criticized at the time as not having direct relevance to playing the game of football.[ citation needed ]

At the beginning of the 21st century, several significant events helped elevate freestyle football with broader recognition. Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho starred in Nike advertising campaigns such as "Joga Bonito" (English: Play Beautifully), which popularized the ability to practice alone with a ball and develop new moves and tricks. [5]

Inspired by Maradona, South Korean footballer Mr Woo sought to become a football entertainer. He established Guinness world records and performed at the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, and the FIFA World Cups in 1990 and 1994. [6] Soufiane Touzani [7] from the Netherlands introduced a new style of lower tricks, which were popularized through viral videos. [7] [ better source needed ]

Footballer Sandy Levittas (a.k.a. Bambiball) was among the first women to share videos of her freestyle skills, [8] [9] which inspired more girls to take up the sport. [10] [11] Different styles were then developed such as lowers, uppers, sit-downs, grounds and blocking.

In 2015, Ronaldinho was recognized by the World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) as ambassador for the sport. [4] [ timeframe? ] Competitions have been organized across the globe and videos have been shared by over 80 million of people on a monthly basis. [12] [ failed verification ]

In recent years, some of the top football players in the world have credited freestyle and street football cultures for helping to develop their talents. These athletes have included Neymar Jr, [13] [14] Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimović.[ citation needed ]

Tricks

Tricks or moves in freestyle football are categorized into different disciplines or styles:

Within the above disciplines, the following individual moves are among the most popular:

Competitive freestyle

The first major competition for freestyle football was Red Bull Street Style (RBSS) in 2008, which was hosted in São Paulo, Brazil.[ citation needed ] Séan Garnier won this competition with a style that had not been seen in the public eye before.[ citation needed ]

Super Ball, the first open world championship (where anyone could compete) catered to freestylers with ranging styles, recognizing the many ways to judge a freestyler. Hosted in the Czech Republic, Super Ball became the premiere annual international event for freestylers.[ citation needed ]

Tournaments

The following tournaments are recognized by the official governing body of the World Freestyle Football Association: [15] [ failed verification ]

Events

Typical events in competitive freestyle football include:[ further explanation needed ][ citation needed ]

Ranked freestylers

The WFFA uses results from the official national championships, continental championships, international opens and world open competitions to assign a point ranking to competitors. [16] [ failed verification ][ needs update ]

WFFA Committee

Other key names that brought their own touch to the art of freestyle football over the years include:

Media

In January 2019, freestyle football has received over 80 million video views per month on social media channels.[ citation needed ] There are over 70 related events every year, the largest being the Red Bull Street Style World Final. The sport is enjoyed mainly by a demographic of 12–25 year-olds, with 85% male. [62] [63] [64] [ failed verification ]

Major markets in terms of consumption of freestyle football content include the United States, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Spain, Poland, France, the Middle East, China, Japan and South East Asia, with a direct audience of 1.47 billion football fans around the globe. [65] [ relevant? ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juggling</span> Circus skill manipulating objects

Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object or many objects at the same time, most often using one or two hands but other body parts as well, like feet or head. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props. The most common props are balls, clubs, or rings. Some jugglers use more dramatic objects such as knives, fire torches or chainsaws. The term juggling can also commonly refer to other prop-based manipulation skills, such as diabolo, plate spinning, devil sticks, poi, cigar boxes, contact juggling, hooping, yo-yo, hat manipulation and kick-ups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unicycle</span> One-wheeled mode of transportation

A unicycle is a vehicle that touches the ground with only one wheel. The most common variation has a frame with a saddle, and has a pedal-driven direct-drive. A two speed hub is commercially available for faster unicycling. Unicycling is practiced professionally in circuses, by street performers, in festivals, and as a hobby. Unicycles have also been used to create new sports such as unicycle hockey. In recent years, unicycles have also been used in mountain unicycling, an activity similar to mountain biking or trials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keepie uppie</span> Skill game and act of juggling a ball

Keepie uppie, keep-ups or kick-ups is the skill of juggling with an association football using feet, lower legs, knees, chest, shoulders, and head, without allowing the ball to hit the ground. It is similar to Kemari, a game formerly practiced in the Japanese imperial court.

Thomas Dietz is a professional juggler from Regensburg, Germany. He is recognized as one of the greatest technical jugglers in the world. He holds various unofficial juggling records and also the five club juggling world record of 53 minutes and 21 seconds. However, he gained most of his popularity through several juggling videos featuring his highly technical tricks including siteswap variations, pirouettes, and long runs of numbers with clubs, balls, and sometimes rings.

Vladimir, known as Vova, and Olga Galchenko were a brother and sister juggling team originally from Russia, active from approximately 2001 to 2009. They specialized in club juggling, particularly technical solo juggling, technical club passing and numbers club passing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kendama</span> Japanese cup and ball game

The kendama is a traditional Japanese skill toy. It consists of a handle (ken), a pair of cups (sarado), and a ball (tama) that are all connected together by a string. On one end of the ken is a cup, while the other end of ken is narrowed down, forming a spike (kensaki) that fits into the hole (ana) of the tama. The kendama is the Japanese version of the classic cup-and-ball game, and is also a variant of the French cup-and-ball game bilboquet. Kendama can be held in different grips, and many tricks and combinations can be performed. The game is played by tossing the ball into the air and attempting to catch it on the stick point.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joggling</span> Sport that combines juggling with jogging

Joggling is a competitive sport that combines juggling with jogging. People who joggle are called jogglers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Twirling</span>

Twirling is a form of object manipulation where an object is twirled by one or two hands, the fingers or by other parts of the body. Twirling practice manipulates the object in circular or near circular patterns. It can also be done indirectly by the use of another object or objects as in the case of devil stick manipulation where handsticks are used. Twirling is performed as a hobby, sport, exercise or performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aaron Hadlow</span> British kitesurfer

Aaron Hadlow is a professional kiteboarder who has won the Pro Kiteboard Riders' Association (PKRA) World Championships five times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Rooseboom de Vries</span> Dutch freestyle footballer

Daniel Rooseboom de Vries is a Dutch freestyle footballer from Gorinchem, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacky sack</span> Ball game

A footbag is a small, round bag usually filled with plastic pellets or sand, which is kicked into the air as part of a competitive game or as a display of dexterity. "Hacky Sack" is the name of a brand of footbag popular in the 1970s, which has since become a generic trademark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soufiane Touzani</span>

Soufiane Touzani is a Dutch-Moroccan freestyle footballer and television presenter from Rotterdam. In 2008, he uploaded a video on YouTube and this became an international success with millions of views. The video also caught the attention of Electronic Arts and they asked him to perform the tricks for the PlayStation game FIFA Street. Famous football players like Thierry Henry and Robin van Persie watched his videos. Neymar even performed some of his tricks: Touzani Around the World and a trick called “New Shit”. His popularity rose and because of that he received invitations from several countries to show his tricks. He performed worldwide and the pinnacle was a performance with Ronaldinho in a full San Siro Stadium.

Arnaud "Séan" Garnier is a French freestyle footballer. He began as an association football player, notably for Auxerre and Troyes, but his professional career was cut short due to injuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jawad Blunt</span> Pakistani freestyle football champion and world-ranked player

Muhammad Jawad Aftab commonly known as Jawad Blunt is a two time freestyle football champion from Pakistan. He started his career as a professional football freestyler in 2012 and won his first national title in Pakistan Football Freestyle Championship. On September 8, 2016 Jawad was crowned Freestyle Football Champion by Red Bull Pakistan delegation at The Centaurus Mall Islamabad. He is currently ranked 37th in the world ranking of Freestyle Football Federation F3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liv Cooke</span> British football freestyler and entrepreneur

Liv Cooke is a British freestyle football world champion, and current six-time world record holder. She was also a BBC Sport presenter on the prime-time show 'MOTDx' and UEFA ambassador, who has previously been awarded the Parliamentary Rising Star and Woman of the Future awards.

Terrence Decarlo Delancy Jr. is a Bahamian footballer who plays for Cavalier FC and the Bahamas national football team.

The World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) is the international governing body of freestyle football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ricardinho (freestyle football)</span> Brazilian freestyle footballer

Ricardo Fabiano Chahini de Araujo, also known as Ricardinho, is a Brazilian freestyle footballer from Belém do Pará, who was the 2019 Red Bull Street Freestyle world champion.

Red Bull Street Style World Championship 2019 was a freestyle competition where qualified freestylers took part in the finals of Freestyle Football. Competitors exhibited their top tricks and unique moves in a 2v2 battle format held over three minutes. The 2019 finals took place at WynWood village, Miami Beach, Florida. It was won by Ricardo Fabiano Chahini in men`s category and Melody Donchet in the women category

Lia Lewis Gribius is an English freestyle football competitor and association football global ambassador who was raised in France. Having trained in dance most of her youth, she took up freestyle football in her 20s and became a world champion.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "World Freestyle Football Association news". www.thewffa.org. Archived from the original on July 30, 2019. Retrieved Oct 19, 2019.
  2. "Freestyle football in Russia". FIFA.com. 2016-07-23. Archived from the original on September 5, 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-11.
  3. "The History of Freestyle Football" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
  4. 1 2 "World Freestyle Football Association news". 25 March 2024.
  5. House, Future Publishing Limited Quay; Ambury, The; Engl, Bath BA1 1UA All rights reserved; number 2008885, Wales company registration (Jun 25, 2019). "The 14 best football adverts EVER". FourFourTwo. Retrieved Oct 19, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. "Woo magic woos fans". 2002-06-30.
  7. 1 2 http://www.touzaniproductions.nl/ Archived 2017-12-10 at the Wayback Machine Touzani Productions
  8. "Urban ball : Sandy Levittas, la "Ronaldinho" au féminin".
  9. "Scènes Urbaines Ep06 Foot Freestyle féminin - Vidéo dailymotion". 7 May 2010.
  10. "France - S. Levittas - Profile with news, career statistics and history - Soccerway".
  11. "Freestyler is kicking things up a notch in the world of soccer". ABC News .
  12. "Brits lead freestyle revolution". BBC. 2008-05-23. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  13. "Neymar Jr on futsal, street football and tricks". 2016-09-13.
  14. "Neymar Jr's Five - Malmö". Red Bull .
  15. "World Freestyle Football Association news".
  16. "World Freestyle Football Association news".
  17. "Freestyle Football".
  18. "An Exclusive with Andrew Henderson, Freestyle's Most Dominant Athlete, and Why He's Still the Best in the Game". 2017-04-18.
  19. "Freestyle football star Melody Donchet works her magic | DW | 11.06.2019". Deutsche Welle .
  20. "Abaya-Wearing Melody Donchet Wows Dubai Crowd with Ball Skills". 2016-07-03.
  21. "Red Bull Content Pool".
  22. "Red Bull Women's Street Style Finals - Melody Donchet - Sportsnet.ca". www.sportsnet.ca. Retrieved Oct 19, 2019.
  23. "Pokazy Freestyle Football - Aktualny Mistrz Świata, Półfinalista Mam Talent oraz Czołowy Światowy Performer - Michał Rycaj".
  24. "Kitti Szász". Kitti Szász. Retrieved Oct 19, 2019.
  25. "Kitti Szasz · Female Football Freestyler · Budapest, Hungary".
  26. Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Football freestyler Kitti Szász | DW | 15.07.2017" . Retrieved Oct 19, 2019 via www.dw.com.
  27. "Female Freestylers - Kitti Szasz (Hungary)".
  28. "Is Erlend Fagerli Freestyle Football's GOAT?". 2019-01-18.
  29. "Erlend Fagerli - Redbull Street Style".
  30. "Fagerli Brothers".
  31. "Fagerli Brothers - "Be very focused on taking one step" - Interview". 2018-09-11.
  32. "ഫ്രീസ്റ്റൈൽ ഫുട്ബാളിൽ വിസ്മയം തീർത്ത് മുഹമ്മദ് റിസ്‌വാൻ | Madhyamam". 6 July 2022.
  33. "Aguska - London".
  34. "Freestyler's Playlist: The Tracks that Fueled Aguska Mnich's Red Bull Street Style World Title". 2018-12-14.
  35. "Aguska Mnich crowned first-ever Women's European Football Freestyle champion after epic finale in Budapest". 2019-05-18.
  36. "Official Champions". World Freestyle Football Association . Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  37. "VIDEO: Lia Lewis stuns field to win maiden Red Bull Street Style title". Red Bull. November 21, 2021. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  38. "World Freestyle Football Association news".
  39. "From Vietnam to Ireland, Nam the Man Spreads the Passion and Promise of Freestyle Football". July 2016.
  40. "How to do Heel Juggles | Freestyle Football Training | Palle".
  41. "Palle: Around the World". 26 August 2013.
  42. "Palle". 26 August 2013.
  43. "From the Archives — Palle's interview". 2018-04-08.
  44. "Street style soccer tricks". Red Bull . 14 September 2018.
  45. https://ca.linkedin.com/in/steve-elias-06515b20 [ self-published source ]
  46. "Steve Elias Shows Us How to SWRL". 2016-03-11.
  47. "Eli Freeze - Journey to FIFA World Cup Final Brazil".
  48. "Uganda's finest freestyle ball juggler Andy Skillz lands invite to 2019 Africa Olympic Beach Games". Kawowo.com. 2019-03-16. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  49. Wilson, Jeremy (2018-02-23). "Meet John Farnworth, the man attempting to juggle a football up Everest". The Telegraph.
  50. "John Farnworth - Freestyle Magic - CBBC - BBC".
  51. "Leeds Metropolitan University - Latest News - Round the World Record with soccer freestyler and Leeds Carnegie - 20/03/08". Archived from the original on 2011-07-17.
  52. "Jeon kwon". 6 July 2013.
  53. "JK 아트사커 온라인 - YouTube". YouTube .
  54. "WATCH: Soccer Freestyler Defies Gravity, Climbs a Lamppost". HuffPost . 2012-12-07.
  55. "Most steps climbed backwards on a ladder while controlling a football with the feet".
  56. "Iya Traoré, du PSG à la rue!". 2010-10-12.
  57. "Football Freestyler - Abbas Farid Nike Champion".
  58. "The king of keepie-uppie". 2003-06-27.
  59. "Football's freestyler".
  60. "The Japan Freestyle Football Championship Was an Insane Display of Creativity and Personal Style". 2017-05-18.
  61. "Japanese Freestyler Yosuke Yokota Proves He's Still a Creative Beast". 2016-02-19.
  62. noCtrl. "World Freestyle Football Association news". www.thewffa.org (in Czech). Retrieved 2019-07-15.
  63. "Beyond Football -". April 2017.
  64. "World Freestyle Football Association news".
  65. "World Freestyle Football Association news". 25 March 2024. Archived from the original on 13 September 2019. Retrieved 12 July 2019.