Freestyle football

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on
the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2012)
This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality
standards. (February 2014)
This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or
spelling. (May 2019)
Freestyle football
1 john farnworth.jpg
John Farnworth performing a freestyle trick in Singapore in 2011, where he broke
two records.
Highest governing body Freestyle Football Federation
Characteristics
Contact Yes
Type Ball sport
Equipment Football
Presence
Olympic No
Freestyle football, also known as freestyle soccer in North America, is the art of
self-expression with a football while performing various tricks with parts of the
body. Similar in style to keepie uppie, kemari and the ball discipline of rhythmic
gymnastics, it has become a widespread sport across the world and is practiced by
many people. The official governing body for this sport is known as World Freestyle
Football Association (W.F.F.A)[1][2][3].

Contents
1 Rules
2 Increase in popularity
3 Freestyle pioneers
4 Freestyle competitions
5 List of international competitions and winners
5.1 FF World Tour
5.2 Superball - World Open Championships
5.3 Red Bull Street Style
5.4 F3 Asian Championships
5.5 F3 European Championships
5.6 SISM - American Panna & Freestyle Tournament
6 Freestyle tricks
7 References
Rules
Freestyle football involves competitors performances, either three 30-second
performances or a single minute-long performance depending on the stage of the
competition and the competition's structure. Judges evaluate competitors on six
criteria: difficulty, originality, all-around skills, trick execution, mistakes,
and variety. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with the hands or arms and
such touches are considered mistakes by the judges.[4]

Increase in popularity
Freestyle football has existed since the early 1900s,[5] but it has seen a surge in
popularity as a result of global advertising campaigns and digital media sharing.
In the early 21st century, Nike began an advertising campaign which relied heavily
on the freestyle form of football, including video clips of freestyle performances.
The videos are called Joga Bonito which means "Play Beautiful." These
advertisements featured famous players such as Ronaldinho, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Edgar Davids. Many link such mass media attention to the start of the freestyle
craze. In the YouTube era, however, many previously non-famous players have risen
to prominence, and internet searches easily yield thousands of videos by amateur
"freestylers" around the world.[6]

Some of the more notable freestylers include: Hee Young Woo (Mr. Woo) of South
Korea, S�an Garnier (France), Pawel Sk�ra (Polish), Michal Rycaj (Polish), D-Eleven
(Brazil), Azun (Norwegian), Palle (Swedish), Reynoldz (Irish), Beto (Mexico),
Andrew Henderson (UK), Akim Kovalev (Russia), Ricardinho (Brazil), PWG
(Philippines), Tokura (Japan), Jawad Blunt (Pakistan), the 5 time Guinness World
Record Holder[7] Victor Rubilar and John Farnworth, who appeared in Britain's Got
Talent in 2009. Also in the same year of Britain's Got Talent (series 3) Uefa
Training Grounds skill experts[8] Woody & Kleiny were the first freestyle double
act to ever hit the programmed screens and the duo were branded by Simon Cowell as
the Anty & Decky[9] of football juggling. Moreover, men are not the only ones
capable the sport are current World Champion Kitti Sz�sz (Hungarian) as well as
runner up M�lody Donchet and North American non-competitive but high-level
freestyle Indi Cowie.

Freestyle has also become very popular in South America, with countries such as
Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and Chile forming freestyle crews of dozens
or even hundreds of freestylers, some of the most important Latin Freestylers are
Charly Iacono who got to the Semifinals of Talento Argentino, an Argentinian talent
show, and Cristian "Rocky" Mayorga who came third in the South Africa 2010 Red Bull
Street Style world finals.

Freestyle pioneers
Several freestylers have influenced the varying styles within freestyle football
including Rickard "Palle" Sjolander, nicknamed the "godfather of air moves". Palle
invented many lower body tricks which are now used by several freestylers. Palle's
progression of lower body freestyle was enhanced by Pawel Sk�ra from Poland. Since
2010, the progression within lower body freestyle has been led by a group of around
10 "limit pushers", including Pawel Sk�ra, MP, Hasip, Ars, Mirko, Gunther, Akim,
LKR, Ethan, Memo and more.

Women have also entered into freestyle and notable pioneers in women's freestyle
include Indi Cowie and Lucia Kevick�.[citation needed]

The movie In the Hands of the Gods promotes football freestylers. The film followed
five lads (Mikey Fisher, Paul Wood, Sami Hall, Danny Robinson, and Jeremy Lynch) on
a journey of a lifetime in search of arguably the best football player of all time
Diego Maradona. The film became the largest release of a documentary ever in the
UK, fourth biggest in the world when it came to screens on its opening weekend, was
on show at the Cannes film festival and had a red carpet Leicester Square premier
which was green AstroTurf for the boys.[10]

Freestyle competitions

Freestyle footballers freestyling at the Red Bull Arena, Salzburg, Austria

Shortly after the Joga Bonito advertising campaign, Nike launched "Nike Football",
a freestyle football competition on the internet in which participants could submit
their own clips and receive feedback from a worldwide audience.

In December 2006, the "Masters of The Game" competition was held in Amsterdam and
was won by Hassan Muxudin Ali. Nutmeg or Panna and other street football
competitions have been held featuring street football players such as Edward Van
Gils, Ismael Hamdaoui, and Jermaine Vanenburg.

In 2007 there was a competition in Latin America called Red Bull Reaction.
Also in 2007 Redbull futbol de calle was held in NYC's Webster Hall.

The French Arnaud "S�an" Garnier is the first world champion of Red Bull Street
Style Soccer. The final of the Red Bull Street Style competition was held in Brazil
In November 2008. Arnaud Garnier "S�an" beat out the other 42 competitors to win
the competition.

The 2010 Red Bull street style was held in Cape Town South Africa April 24�28. The
winner was Anders "Azun" Solum from Norway, who beat Kamalio Ranchod from South
Africa in the final. The latest one was held in Italy where Kotaro Tokuda from
Japan came first, and Daniel Dennehy from Ireland finished second.

List of international competitions and winners

FF World Tour
Year Events General 1st Place General 2nd Place General 3rd Place Canada
Calgary Winner Australia Melbourne Winner
2016 2 United Kingdom Andrew Henderson Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj
Calgary Winner United Kingdom Andrew Henderson Poland Michal Michryc
Rycaj
Year Events General 1st Place General 2nd Place General 3rd Place United
Kingdom London Winner China Beijing Winner
2014 2 Argentina Charly Iacono Colombia Boyka United Kingdom Andrew
Henderson Colombia Boyka United Kingdom Andrew Henderson
Year Events General 1st Place General 2nd Place General 3rd Place United
Kingdom London Winner United Arab Emirates Dubai Winner
2013 2 Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj Poland Lukasz Luki Chwieduk Norway
Tobias Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj
Year Events General 1st Place General 2nd Place General 3rd Place Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur Winner
2011 1 United Kingdom Andrew Henderson France Gautier Poland Michryc
United Kingdom Andrew Henderson
Superball - World Open Championships
Year Location Battle 1st Place Battle 2nd Place Battle 3rd Place Routine
Winner Sick3 Winner Challenge Winner
2018 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic Norway Erlend Colombia Boyka
Sweden VLO Belarus KVP Norway Krog Poland Kondzio
2017 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic Brazil Ricardinho Brazil Pedrinho
Norway Erlend France Gautier Brazil Ricardinho Russia Timur Alekseev
2016 Czech Republic Liberec, Czech Republic Norway Erlend Norway Tobias
Sweden Emil K�lldoff France Gautier Russia Pavlinoff Italy Luca
Chiarvesio
2015 Czech Republic Liberec, Czech Republic Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj Norway
Erlend Brazil Ricardinho France Gautier Mexico M3mo Norway Tobias
2014 Czech Republic Liberec, Czech Republic Brazil Pedrinho Norway Tobias
Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj France Gautier Russia Pavlinoff Mexico M3mo
2013 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic United Kingdom Andrew Henderson
Mexico Esteban Poland Lukasz Luki Chwieduk France Gautier Hungary
Rocco Russia McPro
2012 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic United Kingdom Andrew Henderson
Poland Michal Michryc Rycaj Italy Gunther France Gautier
2011 Czech Republic Prague, Czech Republic Poland Szymon Szymo Skalski Poland
Pawel Sk�ra United Kingdom Andrew Henderson Poland Krzysztof Golonka Clyde

Red Bull Street Style

Year Location 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place
2018 Poland Warsaw, Poland Norway Erlend Fagerli Brazil Ricardinho Norway
Brynjar Fagerli
2016 United Kingdom London, United Kingdom Argentina Charly Iacono Japan Kosuke
Takahashi Russia McPro
2014 Brazil Salvador, Brazil United Kingdom Andrew Henderson Argentina Charly
Iacono Norway Erlend Fagerli
2013 Japan Tokyo, Japan PolandSzymon Szymo Skalski Argentina Charly Iacono
United Kingdom Andrew Henderson
2012 Italy Lecce, Italy Japan Tokura Republic of Ireland Daniel Dennehy
Italy Gunther
2010 South Africa Cape Town, South Africa Norway Azun South Africa Kamalio
Colombia Rocky
2008 Brazil S�o Paulo, Brazil France Sean Japan Yosuke Brazil Murilo
Pitol
F3 Asian Championships
Year Host 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Ref.
2013 Vietnam Hanoi, Vietnam Vietnam �? Kim Ph�c Vietnam �o�n Thanh T�ng Mexico
Miguel Angel Casanueva Hurtado [11]
2014 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Philippines Philip Warren Gertsson Iran
Mohammad Akbari Mexico Maximiliano Martinez Osuna [12]
2015 Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia Japan Kosuke Takahashi Philippines Philip
Warren Gertsson Japan Yuuki Yoshinaga [13]
2016 Philippines Davao City, Philippines Philippines Philip Warren Gertsson Japan
Yo Kamatsuka Indonesia Ardhi Andyadi [14]
F3 European Championships
Year Manchester, United Kingdom 1st place Brynjar 2nd place Erlend 3rd place
Tobias
Sick3

2016 Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark Norway Erlend Norway Tobias Norway

Brynjar Denmark Anders Borg
2015 Netherlands Amsterdam, Netherlands Norway Tobias Netherlands Maarten
PolandDaniel Mikolaj Mikolajek
2014 Belgium Brussels, Belgium PolandDaniel Mikolaj Mikolajek PolandMichal
Michryc Rycaj Italy Gunther
2013 Hungary Budapest, Hungary PeruCristhian Casilla Escobar PolandDaniel
Mikolaj Mikolajek Serbia Djota
SISM - American Panna & Freestyle Tournament
Year Location 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place
2016 United States San Jose, CA, United States Argentina Rodrigo Caballero United
States "Borgetti" Adalberto Lopez Colombia "Tacho" Jhon Maldonado
2015 United States San Jose, CA, United States Mexico Marvin Rodriguez Mexico "Gio"
Jovanny Gonzalez PeruCristhian Casilla Escobar
2014 United States San Jose, CA, United States Mexico "Gio" Jovanny Gonzalez United
Arab EmiratesFahad Al Braiki United States Jereminho