Increase in popularity[edit]
Freestyle football has existed since the early 1900s,[1] 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 asRonaldinho, 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.[2]
Some of the more notable freestylers include: Hee Young Woo (Mr. Woo) of South Korea, Pawel Skora (Polish), Michal Rycaj (Polish), Beto (Mexican), Azun (Norwegian),Palle (Swedish), Reynoldz (Irish), Victor Rubilar,Kamalio. Four time Guinness World Record Holder[3] 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[4] Woody & Kleiny were the first freestyle double act to ever hit the programmes screens and the duo were branded by Simon Cowell as the Anty & Decky[5] of football juggling. Moreover, men are not the only ones capable of training this sports discipline. Since it started spreading all over the world more and more women have been taking up freestyle football. Some of the most notable women in the sport are current World Champion Kitti Szász (Hungarian) as well as runner up Mélody Donchet and North American non-competitive but high level freestyler 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 Semi finals 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[edit]
Several freestylers have had an impact on the varying styles within freestyle football including Rickard "Palle" Sjolander, nicknamed the "godfather of airmoves". Palle invented many lower body tricks which are now used by several freestylers. Palle's progression of lower body freestyle was enhanced by Pawel Skora from Poland. Since 2010, the progression within lowerbody freestyle has been led by a group of around 10 "limit pushers", including Pawel Skora, MP, Hasip, Ars, Mirko, Gunther, Akim, LKR, Ethan, Memo and more.
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.[6]
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