Freestyle football is also known as freestyle soccer in North America. It's an art of doing tricks with the football by juggling with it creatively.
It combines various types of football tricks, dance, and aerobatics with some music to entertain the visitors and compete with their opponents. It's an exciting hybrid game involving sports and the arts. Performers entertain the crowd through clever manipulations of the ball while interacting with the audience.
The moves that are commonly performed in the competitions are Maradona 7, Around the World, Crossover and Hop the World. The major international competitions conducted for the freestyle football are F3 World Tour, Superball-World Open Championships, Red Bull Street Style and the F3 European Championships. Over recent years, freestyle football became popular across the globe and is played by millions of people.
Freestyle football is an advanced version of regular football where the players' primary objective is to perform from regular to complicated football tricks. Their performances consist of extreme expression through the art of juggling, various dance steps and aerobatics.
A player who gives the most extraordinary performance gains the highest number of points and wins the event.
The jury judges the events to determine how the players perform, the originality and difficulty. More points are gained based on the complexity of the performance.
Freestyle football is classified into five major styles based on the moves performed. These are-
Lower-Body Style- In this kind of style, players can use only their legs to perform tricks.
Upper-Body Style- In this style, the players can use their head, shoulders and chest only.
Sitting Down Style- In this style, the players are allowed to perform tricks while sitting down. They can use both their upper and lower body.
Ground Moves Style- In this style, players perform football moves and are free to move around anywhere in the field while performing the tricks.
Special Style- In this style, the players perform acrobatic dance moves while keeping the football from falling on the ground.
The history of freestyle football can be traced back to Southeast Asia and other Southern games such as chinlone, jianzi and sepaktakraw, which have been practised from 2,000 years.
During the 1800s, performers modified their juggling skills for the circus. In the 1970s and 1980s, the famous Argentine footballer Diego Maradona brought his freestyle 'Live is Life' warm-up to the international attention while playing for SSC Napoli.
At the beginning of the 21st century, several significant events helped bringing freestyle football with broader recognition. Inspired by the famous footballer Maradona, South Korean footballer Mr. Woo sought to become the football entertainer.
He also established a Guinness World Record and performed at the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony and the 1990 and 1994 FIFA World Cups.
Footballer Sandy Levittas, also known as the 'Bambiball' was among the first women who shared their videos of freestyle skills, which later inspired more girls to participate in the sport.
As the Brazilian footballer, Ronaldinho starred in the Nike's Joga Bonito commercials, showcasing the freestyle skills with the ball, the ability to practice with the ball alone was much popularised.
It was highly anticipated, and after a decade, freestyle football has been recognised as an organised sport in the country. The first championship was organised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with Andrew Henderson winning the first-ever world title.
In 2006, Nike hosted multiple freestyle football tournaments. In 2011, Andrew Henderson won the first official F3 World Championship. He is still regarded as a formidable opponent on tour. Michal Rycaj of Poland remained undefeated in the entire 2013 season.
