Freestyle football, also known as
freestyle soccer in
North America,
is the art of expressing yourself with a football, while performing
various tricks with any part 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 practised by many people.(SEKALI - SEKALI PAKE ENGLISH DONG YA :) )
Increase in popularity
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 Beautifully." 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.
[2]
Some of the more notable freestylers include:
Hee Young Woo (Mr. Woo) of South Korea, Pawel Skora (Polish), Michal Rycaj (Polish), Azun (Norwegian), Palle (Swedish),
Victor Rubilar, Four time Guinness World Record Holder
[3] and
John Farnworth, who appeared in
Britain's Got Talent
in 2009. 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 Mélody Donchet and Indi Cowie. Sweden,
United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, France, Hungary, Russia and Poland are
considered the best countries in the world regarding freestyle football.
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 competitions
Shortly
after the Joga Bonito advertising campaign Nike launched a freestyle
football competition on the internet "Nike Football" in which
participants could submit their own clips and receive feedback from a
worldwide audience.
In December 2006 the "Masters of The Game" competition, held in
Amsterdam and was won by
John Farnworth.
Nutmeg
or Panna and other street football competitions have been held
featuring street soccer players such as Edward Van Gils 'Edje', Issy
Hitman, and Jermaine Vanenburg 'Vaantje'.
In 2007 there was a competition in Latin America called
Red Bull Reaccion.
Also in 2007 Redbull futbol de calle was held in NYC's Webster Hall.
The French Arnaud "Séan" 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 "Séan"
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 won.
