About Freestyle Soccer
Freestyle Soccer is a rapidly growing sport where the player expresses his/her creativity based on football tricks. Freestylers are free to create tricks of any kind, there are no limits.
Express yourself !
Show your Style !
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How did it begin?
Freestyle has been around a while now, it's not pin-pointed when exactly it began but since the start of this millennium it has been growing very quickly and catching the attention of people, we all know who Pele and Maradona are, they showed the world their juggling skills before a match and at training......it was mostly juggling and balance tricks that were performed. Players were inspired by them and started to practice juggling, then it began to evolve from simple juggling to simple tricks to express and challenge the player’s creativity.
Today, professional soccer players such as Edgar Davids, Christiano Ronaldo, Robinho, Ronaldinho and more are fine examples who play freestyle soccer and also promote great soccer talent.
It is more likely that through juggling exercises that freestyle soccer evolved.
The internet also played an important role for bringing together those who were playing the sport and also to promote it to where it is now.
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Major Freestyle Events
The Sport itself is not officially organised by any international body as of yet. The list below will summarise major events that took place within the last decade in the world of Freestyle Soccer.
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Nike 2001 - Nike held events in the UK and Ireland in the third quarter of the year 2001; winners from each county were invited to star in a music video produced in the UK.
Video Clip
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Nike 2003 - Nike comes back with “Got Skills” campaigning in the UK. This event saw Abbas Farid crowned the “Freestyle King”, Earls court in London hosted the finals where Mr Woo was a part of the performance acts. Participants included many noticeable players, Mike Fisher, Billy Wingrove, Tyrone Kirk, Dan Magness, Nam the Man, Jeremy Lynch
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Masters of the Game (MOTG) 2003 - The organisation titled their event “World Freestyle Championships”, held in the Ajax Amsterdam Arena itself on New Years Eve! Mr Woo of Korea won the title “World Freestyle Champion 2003 ”. Among the competitors were Abbas Farid, Touzani, Nelson de Kok, Abdullah, Gerbeshi Faton, Omar Nejari and more.
Video Clip
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Masters of the Game (MOTG) 2006 - The organisation holds a second “World Freestyle Championships”, again on the eve of the New Year, this event was held in the Pepsi Stage in Amsterdam. The organisation invited players from around the world; John Farnworth wins the competition and surprises everyone as the underdog! the competitors:
Players
Nam the Man - Ireland (Injury)
Palle - Sweden (Injury)
Touzani - Holland (was not present)
Abdullah - Holland (was not present)
Emil - Sweden
Mr Woo - Korea
Sean - France
Andreas - France
Mouloud - France
Filip Meeus - Belgium
Timo Lohnenbach - Germany
Adrian Fogel - Germany
Marco - Japan
Yosuke - Japan
John Farnworth - UK
Richard Braithwaite - UK
FX - Hungary
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Eurobac 2007 - Soccer organisation in Austria, “TECO 7”, www.teco7.com, held an event in the heart of Austria on the 2nd of December 2007….Vienna was the host city and Top European freestyle players were invited by invitation only.
Players
Palle - Sweden
Sean - Francey
Nam the Man - Ireland
Mr Woo - UK
Matt - France
Abbas Farid - Wales
Szymon - Poland
Petike - Hungary
Nedzad Brajic - Croatia
Camill Hauser - Germany
Daniel Rooseboom - Holland
Touzani - Holland
John Farnworth - UK
John Farnworth again impressed the jury of 4 and pinched the title from fellow competitors Mr Woo, Sean, Abbas Farid and Nedzad:
Markia Lichter - Famous TV host and well known actress and singer
Mehmet Scholl - Ex- Player Bayern Munich
Michael Konsel - Ex – Player Rapid Vienna, AS Roma.
Bernhard Bresich - World Record holder, more than 1000 ball artist performances worldwide
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Komball Kontest 2008 - The Komball organisation based in France provided a new way of competing for freestyle football tournaments; they were the first to introduce a knock-out battle mode contest, to make things more interesting, more competitive and more interactive.
The organisation invited the best of the best of freestyle players from all around Europe to battle it out on stage in front of the millions of viewer LIVE on Eurosport 2 television.
Sposnored by Fifa street 08, judges includes a panel of 3:
Rai - Professional player (PSG, World Champion with Brazil 1994)
Amadou Gueye - Freestyle soccer personality, starred in famous NIKE tvc alongside Ronaldinho.
Junior - French Champion Extreme breaker and choreographer.
The Competition was held over 2 days where all players had to go through a stage of individual performances only to filter out 8 from the 16 players to battle it out on the second and final day.
Videos: Promo and Final here
Players:
Nam the Man - Ireland
Palle - Sweden
Filip Meuus - Belgium
Abbas Farid - Wales
John Farnworth - UK
Petike - Hungary
Szymo - Poland
Tommy Rist - Germany
Camil Hauser - Germany
Matt - France
Djiminho - France
Wasse - France
Nedzad - Croatia
Mr Woo - UK
Andreas - France
Sean - France
Nam the Man wins for Ireland and is crowned European Football Freestyle Champion 2008
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Red Bull Streetstyle European Freestyle Exhibition Tournament 2008 - This year sees Red Bull take over the Freestyle scene with their international campaign to find the best player in the world of freestyle football and ultimately crown him/her champion of the world.
This event was an exhibition European Freestyle Championships. Vienna, Austria was the location and, invited players battled it out in front of a judging panel of 3 persons:
Edgar Davids - Recognised Streetsoccer Freestyle legend and Professional player soccer player
Andrew Wengler - Famous breaker and dance choreographer in all of Austria
Bernhard Bresich - World Record holder, more than 1000 ball artist performances worldwide
Players:
Nam the Man - Ireland
Palle - Sweden
Filip Meuus - Belgium
Petike - Hungary
TG - Hungary
Szymo - Poland
Timo Lonhnenbach - Germany
Matt - France
Nedzad - Croatia
Billy Fincham - UK
Andreas - France
Sean - France
Nam the Man battles it out and wins the title from fellow International partner in freestyle football.....Palle from Sweden. Nam the Man retains his title as European Champion 2008 winning all his 4 battles on the night!
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Red Bull Streetstyle Freestyle World Cup Tournament 2008 - Red Bull holds their World Finals in Sao Paolo in Brazil in mid November. Ultimately the cornerstone event in the whole history of freestyle football EVER. Over 40 Players representing their respective country meet in Brazil to battle it out to become the WOLRD CHAMPION in freestyle football. Over 2 days, only the most talented 16 players are filtered and the grand finale to crown only the best!
Nam the Man finishes for Ireland to be ranked in the TOP 5 in the world as fellow freestyler Sean from France takes the title!
Edgar Davids.....- Representing as the head Judge overlooking the over-all performance
Falcao................- World's best Futsal player to judge the Creativity
Bibeto................- Brazilian World Cup Champion judges players based on control of ball
Crazy Legs.........- Father of Breakdance judges the style
Players...............- The players who do not make it to the finals have a collective vote for the best trick executed by the player!
The Finalists
Nam the Man battles it out and wins the title from fellow International partner in freestyle football.....Palle from Sweden. Nam the Man retains his title as European Champion 2008 winning all his 4 battles on the night!
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Basic Freestyle Areas
1. Set-ups / Flick ups - These tricks are ways of getting the ball off the ground and starting a routine. (Example - )
2. Balance, Traps, Stalls - These tricks are when you grab, stop or catch the ball on, or with, any part of your body. (Example - )
3. Sitdown moves - In the sitting position, you perform tricks. (Example - )
4. Juggling5. Airmoves - Generalising ....tricks done whilst the ball is in motion and in the air. This can include tricks executed one at a time or in combos which are a tricks
6.Ground Moves - Tricks...more like artistic movements of the players feet and legs manipulatiing the ball whilst it is still in contact with the ground. (Example -
Some Popular Tricks
Here are some well known names of tricks that freeestylers tend to combine and execute, they are named after the freestyle artist introduced it into the freestyle world:
NOTE:- (A.T.W. - Around The World)
ATW - Around TW
HTW - Hop TW
TATW -Touzani ATW
LATW - Lemmens ATW
MATW - Mitch - ATW
XO - X over
AATW - Abbas ATW
ATATW - Alternative TATW
AMATW - Alternative MATW
ATM - Around The Moon