Between them they have performed crazy football tricks all over the world and have worked with some of the biggest brands from around the globe. As the world temporarily comes to a standstill with every newspaper, tweet and news bulletin focusing on the World Cup in Russia, in honour of the tricks, flicks and great goals we’ve seen so far, it’s time to take a step back and celebrate some of the world’s best football freestylers.
The F2
YouTube – 7.7 million subscribers
Facebook – 3.2million likes
Instagram – 5million followers
Twitter – 350k followers
They call themselves ‘Global Social Influencers’ and with 7.7million subscribers on their YouTube channel with their videos regularly attracting over 1 million views, it’s clear they are doing something right.
Billy was the first football freestyler to be signed by a professional club (Tottenham Hotspur) and his highlights include performing at the World Cup Final in 2006. Jeremy meanwhile was first thrust into the spotlight after appearing on Britain’s Got Talent.
After performing at the 2010 FIFA Ballon d’Or ceremony, the pair decided to join forces together as a double act known as the F2Freestylers. With big sponsorship deals with the likes of Adidas, Konami and Beko, the F2 Freestylers are on a journey to discover the best “tekkers” the world has to offer. F2 Finding Football is a YouTube travel series that features impressive freestyle soccer stunts performed in various nations across the globe.
DC Freestyle
YouTube – 461k subscribers
Facebook – 56,000 likes
Instagram – 554k followers
Twitter – 18k followers
Daniel Cutting has been working as a full-time Football Freestyler for the last 10 years, since graduating from University. His skills have taken him to over 20 countries and allowed him to work alongside some of the world’s biggest brands including Coca-Cola, Adidas, Pepsi, UEFA, Puma and BMW. He holds five world records including the most consecutive face rolls (controlling the ball and rolling it from temple to temple) of which Daniel did a staggering 1,810, smashing the previous record by over three times the amount!
Woody and Kleiny
YouTube – 165k subscribers
Facebook – 1.1 million likes
Instagram – 1.6 million followers
Twitter – 3.6k followers
Woody & Kleiny are two life-long friends with a passion for creating entertaining video content for a millennial audience. The pair started out as football freestylers entering a Nike freestyle competition where they beat 2,000 other acts to make it to the semi-finals. After collaborating with mobile phone company Orange, performing in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley, the success of the pair has continued to snowball. The pair have performed across the world for all sorts of events and brands including the likes of Nike, Adidas, Powerade, Tesco, Phones 4u Mc Donald’s and Coca-Cola.
They have since found a niche market, where they create social experiments, stereotype videos, sketches, pranks, all while developing an engaged community of fans. Now successful YouTube presenters their videos attract over one million views.
Andrew Henderson
YouTube – 126k subscribers
Facebook – 134k likes
Instagram – 476k followers
Twitter – 13.8k followers
After recovering from a horrific leg break which threatened to curtail his dream, Andrew is a five-time world football freestyle champion and the UK Freestyle football champion for eight years running. Some of his highlights include collaborations with Neymar, Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo and Usain Bolt.
Liv Cooke
YouTube- 3.3k subscribers
Facebook- 127k likes
Instagram- 160k followers
Twitter- 68k followers
When she burst onto the scene Liv Cooke became the UK’s first professional female football freestyler. She started building her social media platform while she was at school, filming clips of freestyles and uploading it, slowly but surely, she grew an impressive fan base and had the support she needed to pursue her passion. She is now reigning Freestyle Football World Champion. She recently got invited to perform in Qatar’s national sports day in which she was the main entertainment act for the day. Moreover, she starred in the Chanel 4 Women’s Euro 2017 TV ad in which she showcased her impressive skills.
The growing popularity of football freestylers has been driven by the rise of social media, allowing players to share content all around the world, especially amongst the younger audience. Given the shareable nature of the content, social media promotes “freestyle” well and has breed new life in the sport. Without it, it’s hard to imagine where the above names would be now.
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