The Rise Of Football Freestyle

Freestyle performers entertain the crowdsFootball Free style is an art form. Art in the loosest sense to some but still an art form none the less. It takes years to develop these skills, hours practising and requires incredible close control, balance and awareness to pull off these tricks. Some like Victor Rubilar have made it into a full-time occupation touring the world showcasing their talents to audiences. Rubilar specializes in mixing football freestyle and football juggling skills with dance, acrobatics and comedy and has featured in a variety of adverts for Coke, Nike and Puma displaying his skills. Others like Arnaud “Sean” Garnier, Hee Young Woo and John Farnworth are freestyle champions in their own right, competing at brand run competitions such as the Nike Freestyle Competition or Red Bull Street Style.

Guiness Record holder John Farnworth (Image from Getty)
Guinness Record holder John Farnworth
(Image from Getty)

However most freestylers do it either for tips or simply for the love of the game. A simple search for football free style on YouTube reveals a plethora of clips. On good example is the video of a young street performer named Iya, performing a variety of free style skills with a ball in Paris, from lying down whilst balancing the ball on a pen to balancing the ball on his chin and then putting his right shoe on top of it! The clip was uploaded to YouTube in 2010, creating an internet sensation at the time with over 2 million views. Iya, like others before him, have spent years perfecting their skills and are now reaping the benefits as the popularity of free style increases. With professional players like Robinho, Neymar and Ronaldo all evangelists for the sport and showcasing their form of freestyle on the pitch, freestyle is slowly making the cross over into the football mainstream.

To see free styling at its best, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnNB2FRtctI

To see Ronaldo perform some freestyle tricks, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di7G4nbpyDg

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