Freestyle football
John Farnworth performing a freestyle trick in Singapore in 2011, where he broke two records.
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| 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 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 practiced by many people. The official governing body for this sport is known as Freestyle Football Federation
Freestyle football involves competitors doing a short performance of their skills, either three 30-minute performances or a single minute-long performance depending on the stage of competition and the competition's structure. Judges evaluate competitors on six criteria: difficulty, originality, all round skills, trick execution, mistakes, and variety. Players are not allowed to touch the ball with the hands or arms (e.g. acts which would be penalised as the handball offence in association football), such touches are considered mistakes by the judges.
Freestyle football has existed since the early 1900s, 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.
Some of the more notable freestylers include: Hee Young Woo (Mr. Woo) of South Korea, Séan Garnier (France), Pawel Skóra (Polish), Michal Rycaj (Polish), Beto (Mexican), Azun (Norwegian),Palle (Swedish), Reynoldz (Irish), Andrew Henderson (UK) Akim kovalev (russia) Ricardinho (Brazil) PWG (Phillipines) Tokura (Japan) Jawad Blunt (Pakistan) Victor Rubilar,Kamalio. Four time Guinness World Record Holder 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 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 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.
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