The future of Freestyle Football is incredibly bright: this is the happy conclusion of the first-ever World Youth Freestyle Football Championship, a unique tournament that reached its climax on Saturday, November 13th with the announcement of its champions in a special episode of FreestyleTV. After months of extremely high-quality battles featuring hundreds of young starts from all around the world, the team of judges has reached a final decision: the 2021 under-16 world champions are…
Their tremendous level, almost on par with their senior fellow freestylers, has earned them not just a prize in cash, but also a one-year sponsorship of the tournament partner brand, SWRL.
In the female category, Japanese Hafuri Ito ended up second, and her fellow countrywoman Miu Ozaki took the third spot. In the male category, Brazilian Diego Emanuel won the silver medal, while Polish Olivier Grodecki finished up in the third position.
To review the full results of the World Youth Freestyle Football Championship, including the videos of all battles, click on this link!
Apart from the 1v1 battle competition, the World Youth Championship also offered three special awards to its participants: Best Trick, Most Improved Freestyler, and Best Freestyle Spirit. The winners of these awards were the following:
Best trick: Waka Nagamine, from Japan, and Marco Le Bouteiller, from France
Most Improved Freestyler: Isabel Wilkins, from the UK, and Olivier Grodecki, from Poland
Best Freestyle Attitude: Miu Ozaki, from Japan, and Shunpei Ono, also from Japan
Experience again all the thrills of the battles in the special FreestyleTV episode that aired on the WFFA Twitch and YouTube channels: watch it below!
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Stay tuned to the official channels of the WFFA to follow the latest updates!
The 2021 edition of Red Bull Street Style, the most competitive Freestyle Football tournament in the world, is about to reach its decisive day! This week, the female Battle Pools have been completed, and with the definitive results available, the WFFA has announced the list of freestylers that will compete in the World Final on November 20th in Valencia, Spain.
This article offers the full lineup of athletes that will compete for the World Championship in the Final, as well as the definitive results of the Battle Pools. After the online battle stage, a total of 24 freestylers (16 men and 8 women) have advanced to the last phase of the tournament and earned the right to battle for the title in Spain.
Finalists list
Battle Pools results
To review the results of the Battle Pools, please click on the links below:
The first edition of the World Youth Freestyle Football Championship has advanced onto the online battle stage! The team of judges, led by superstars Melody Donchet and Charly Iacono, have selected the best 32 freestylers (16 boys and 16 girls) out of hundreds and hundreds of entries in the Qualification Stage. The tournament enters now its knockout phase, consisting of individual battles of 3 rounds, each of which allowing 25-to-35-second-long videos.
From September 30th to October 11th, the participants will need to show their best skills if they want to progress to the Quarterfinals of the tournament. The female and male brackets are available in this article; participants will also find a video tutorial and a short guide on how to upload their videos to the official WFFA App at the end of the post.
Please find all the relevant information below:
Knockout stage
Instructional video
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Video upload guide
To check the App usage guide that we’ve prepared for all Youth Championship participants, please click here!
Big news for all Freestyle Football fans: the brand-new World Youth Freestyle Football Championship is advancing to the next stage! After the signups phase, all registered participants will now be able to upload their videos and showcase their talent. The judges will then select only the very best male and female freestylers to advance to the round of Online Battles!
The qualification stage will start on September 15th and end on September 21st. In order for their clip to be eligible, participants will need to stick to the requirements detailed in the official WFFA App. For more information on how to register and upload clips to the App, check the video and the guide available below!
The WFFA has also announced further news: the Youth Championship will now feature three additional prizes, aimed at participants that show exceptional skills and attitudes towards the sport.
The new categories include the following:
Best Trick, awarded to the two freestylers (girl and boy) that execute the most amazing trick of the tournament
Most Improved Freestyler, awarded to the two participants (girl and boy) that show a bigger progression during the tournament
Best Freestyle Attitude, awarded to the two athletes (girl and boy) that showcase the most respect for the values of the sport
The winners of these three categories will win a prize consisting on a SWRL x WFFA Match Ball Pro, a pair of SWRL Evolve Pure FS Shoes, and the official certificate – all presented by the tournament sponsor SWRL.
Instructional video
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Video upload guide
To check the App usage guide that we’ve prepared for all Youth Championship participants, please click here!
The world’s best freestyle footballers will welcome the return of fans as the Spanish city of Valencia has been confirmed as the host city for the 2021 Red Bull Street Style World Finals in November. Sixteen male and eight female freestyle footballers will entertain fans in a celebration of skill, style and diversity, with athletes from all corners of the globe taking to the stage.
The pinnacle competition for the sport will be held in front of fans again for the first time since 2019 and will take place on Saturday, November 20 in the scenic Spanish city.
Those hoping to wow fans in Valencia are reigning male and female Red Bull Street Style champions Erlend Fagerli of Norway and Melody Donchet of France, who will both be eager to defend their crowns.
Confirmation of Valencia comes as the draw for the seeding groups for the World Final – the Online Battle Pools – was held earlier this month which conjured up a number of intriguing match-ups, with 59 male and 20 female athletes vying for a place at the World Finals.
In the stand-out group of the entire draw, Donchet has been drawn in Group C alongside a mixture of rising stars and older champions such as Chile’s Catalina Vega, fellow Frenchwoman Pola Gomez, Great Britain’s Lia Lewis, and Poland’s Kalina Matysiak. Also in action are American Caitlyn Schrepfer in Group B and 2018 World Champion Aguska Mnich from Poland, both of whom will be confident of progression to the World Finals.
Group N of the men’s competition pits best friends Philip Warren Gertsson and Viktor Ludvig Olovson aka VLO against one another – the Swedish residents having known each other for over 15 years. In a men’s competition littered with talent, fans will also be able to watch Poland’s 2013 winner Szymon Skalski in Group G and 2019 finalist Sebastián Ortiz of Colombia in Group P. Elsewhere, Brazilian Gabriel Parke is considered a rising star to watch in Group A as is France’s Tristan Gac in Group L, who has entered the Freestyle Football scene with a bang.
American champion Caitlyn Schrepfer said: “I am so excited for this year’s competition. I was heartbroken last year when I made a couple of small mistakes and I thought I had a great chance. I am looking forward to the competition and hoping to give the other participants a good challenge.”
The WFFA President, Steve Elias, said: “We are thrilled to co-organise Red Bull Street Style yet another year! We believe the city of Valencia will offer an absolutely fabulous backdrop for the 2021 World Final and are really looking forward to celebrating the sport both with the athletes and the fans.”
Frenchman Séan Garnier, the first winner of Red Bull Street Style back in 2008, added: “The beauty of Freestyle Football is that you just need a ball. You don’t need equipment, a motorbike or any other kit. I cannot wait to watch Erlend Fagerli again, who is going to take some beating this year. He is the full package. He has all the skills and is a fantastic performer to go with it. He is incredible and last year he took his game to the next level. He knows how to master his body with the ball.”
For more details about this year’s edition of Red Bull Street Style, please check the corresponding Event Page on the WFFA website.
For more information about the Red Bull Street Style tournament, please visit the official website atwww.redbullstreetstyle.com.
Stay tuned to the official channels of the WFFA to follow the latest updates!
The 2021 edition of Red Bull Street Style, the greatest Freestyle Football competition in the world, has taken yet another giant step towards its World Final in Valencia, Spain in the next month of November. After a fair draw, the WFFA has announced the composition of the Online Battle Pools – the qualification stage in which the best 54 male and 20 female freestylers in the global scene will face each other in groups to determine who deserves a ticket to the Finals. The WFFA has also announced the rundown of the tournament, with the calendar of all upcoming battles.
This article offers a link to the current standings and results of the Battle Pools, as well as the full composition of the groups and a link to the complete calendar of this competitive stage. Participants will also find a short guide on how to upload their videos to the official WFFA App at the end of the article.
Please find all the relevant information below:
Standings and results
The full battle calendars of both the female and male tournaments are available in the links below:
“Can nobody defeat the Fagerlis?” This could be the epic title of the 2021 Super Ball, a tournament that reached its climax on Saturday, August 21st with an authentic exhibition of freestyle football. A selection of the best athletes in the world battled in no less than ten different categories and celebrated the sport with the global community after a particularly difficult year due to the Covid pandemic.
In the male battle category, the Fagerli brothers were unbeatable until the Grand Final; Norwegians Erlend and Brynjar ended up first and second, respectively, and renewed their extraordinary record as the two most successful siblings in the history of freestyle football. Even with his magnificent performance, the 2020 Super Ball champion, Dutch Jesse Marlet, could not repeat the title this time and had to settle for third place.
In the female Grand Final, Polish star Aguśka Mnich defeated British sensation Lia Lewis, who put up a tremendously impressive display in her first-ever Super Ball (and live competition) participation. Yet another renowned star of the sport, Yoanna Dallier from France, claimed the third spot.
Super Ball offered plenty of spectacle in its many other categories as well. In the 1vs1 Panna KO competition, French Anas Boukami defeated Boston Jade, from the US, in the final; local Czech hero Martin Gajdos ended up third, and British Harriet Pavlou made history ending up in the fourth position – the first woman to ever reach this spot in the Super Ball Panna tournament.
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The Sick Three challenge saw local Czech talent Danny Prazak beat German Chris Bennet Bröker aka CBB in the final to claim the title, with an unexpected third-place finish: Tony Ma, from Hong Kong. Vasek Klouda, the Czech legend of footbag (a brother sport to Freestyle Football), also participated and landed an amazing combo, but the judges found it wasn’t according to the rules of the competition, so he couldn’t make it to the podium in the end.
In the Routine competition, Nick Seyda from the USA took the crown, with Patrick Bäurer from Germany and Nicolas Rossier from Switzerland in the second and third positions respectively.
The Show Flow tournament, just like the male battles one, was claimed by Norwegian legend Erlend Fagerli. Crowd favourite Philip Warren Gertsson aka PWG and Álvaro López from Spain ended up second and third.
In the Ironman category, Dutch Bodhi Bos defeated Polish Olivier Grodecki from Poland in the final; Ethan Audiot, from France, took the bronze medal. French-Guyanese Wiwi claimed the title of Kill The Beat champion.
The Intermediate Battles saw Joshua Lockard from the USA taking the title, with Italian Giorgio Luppi and Belgian William Cochart finishing in the second and third spots. Last but not least, in the Rookie Battles, Alex Herbaut from France beat Dutch Mike van der Streek aka Mighty Mike in the Final; yet another Frenchman, EnzoRuta, ended up in the third position.
The event, hosted at the Clarion Congress hotel in Prague, was live-streamed on the WFFA channels for the first time, with a luxury team of casters and commentators that included the likes of Pekko Piirto, Daniël Rooseboom, Paloma Mayo, Miran Pirner, Alex Hyland-Cid, Bailey de Regt, Mighty Mike and Kevin Medina. The 2021 Super Ball was judged by an elite team of officials led by Kitti Szász (the first female Head Judge in the history of the tournament) and consisting of Javi Sanz, Jordan Meunier, Mateusz Odrzygóźdź akaLotar and Michał Rycaj aka MichRyc, as well as Miran Pirner, Pekko Piirto and Daniël Rooseboom. The tournament also saw the debut alongside the traditional Super Ball MC, Lorenzo Pinciroli, of promising names such as Nabil Hamza and Laura Biondo – the first time ever in which a female master of ceremonies co-hosted the Finals.
Stay tuned to the official channels of the WFFA to follow the latest updates!
The Freestyle Football community will celebrate the birth of a new competition this year: the best young freestylers on the planet will be offered a platform to showcase their talent in the World Youth Freestyle Football Championship, a global tournament aimed at male and female athletes under the age of 16.
This competition, which will open its registration process on August 16th and kick off in September through the official WFFA App, will happen on a fully digital basis. Participants will be asked to upload their videos in a dedicated section of the App between September 15th and September 21st; the judges will then evaluate their routines and select the best 16 athletes of the male and female categories, who will then face each other in a knockout stage consisting of quarterfinals, semifinals and a third-place battle. Each of these heats will feature battles of 3 rounds, all through the official App.
The World Youth Freestyle Football Championship will culminate in a Final that will be held online between November 1st and November 9th, 2021. The winners of this decisive showdown will receive a full-year sponsorship of the WFFA partner SWRL and, most importantly, the title of most promising male and female u16 freestylers: the very future of the sport of Freestyle Football! Besides this, a total prize money amount of 3,000€ will be split between the winners, the runners-up and the third-placed athletes of the tournament in both the male and the female categories. .
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Here is the full rundown of the tournament:
Registration period (From August 16 to September 15): All athletes wishing to participate will need to enter the official WFFA App (available for Android and iOS in the respective app stores) and register
Qualification round(From September 15 to September 21): All participants will need upload their routine as a horizontal, 30-second video to the dedicated space in the App
Top16 announcement (September 29): The selected participants for the knockout stage will be officially announced on the WFFA channels and notified in the App itself
Round of 16 (From September 30 to October 11): Competitors will need to upload their 30-second routines to the dedicated space in the official WFFA App, and their opponents will have 24 hours to respond to them
Quarterfinals (From October 12 to October 21): Same format as above
Semifinals (From October 22 to November 1): Same format as above
Third-place battle (From November 2 to November 9): Same format as above
Final (From November 2 to November 9): Same format as above
Winners announced (November 10): The WFFA channels will disclose the names of the male and female u16 World Champions!
The World Youth Freestyle Football Championship will be judged using the official WFFA rules (available here) by a list of renowned, first-class freestylers led by World Champions Melody Donchet (France) and Charly Iacono (Argentina). The luxury lineup will also feature another World Champion, Ricardo Chahini (Brazil), as well as huge names of the sport of the likes of Laura Biondo (Venezuela), Paloma P. Mayo (Spain), Cata Vega Piña (Chile) and Javi Sanz (Spain).
“We are very proud to present this tournament”, said Steve Elias, President of the WFFA. “We have heard the pleas of the community, particularly of the youngest athletes; they definitely deserve a platform to shine. We are convinced that this will help motivate them to improve their skills, and hence will eventually have a positive impact on the whole sport of Freestyle Football.”
“The pandemic wreaked havoc on our competitive events, but also gave us new unexpected opportunities”, said Lukáš Škoda, Head of Operations of the WFFA. “The World Youth Freestyle Football Championship is an example: thanks to the technology we developed for Red Bull Street Style, we can now present this innovative format for all the young promises to show what they’re capable of.”
“I believe the global Freestyle Football scene definitely needed a space for young athletes to prove how amazingly skilled they are”, said Dutch freestyle champion Jasmijn Janssen, female ambassador of the World Youth Freestyle Football Championship. “I’m thrilled to be supporting the growth of the sport through a great initiative like this!”.
“As a teenager, I would’ve loved to participate in a competition like this one”, said Norwegian-Filipino freestyler Philip Warren Gertsson, male ambassador of the tournament. “I believe it offers a unique opportunity for the stars of the future to shine – and demonstrate how bright the future of freestyle is!”.
“It’s a fantastic new challenge for us”, said Julio Cisneros, Head of Judging at the WFFA and leader of judges at the World Youth Freestyle Football Championship. “We are really looking forward to judging the skills of the next generation of freestylers. No doubt they will bring some never-seen-before tricks to the table and take us out of our comfort zone!”.
The World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) has reached today a key milestone in the process of digitalisation of its assets – and the sport of Freestyle Football itself: the launch of a brand-new website, built in partnership with the sports technology brand GameDay. The new digital platform has been created to act as a hub for all the activities around Freestyle Football, from live event registration and ticketing to online membership of the Association. The global community of freestyle professionals, amateurs and fans will be able to find a wide range of resources and information in an easier and faster manner than in the previous online home of the WFFA.
The new WFFA website will include a calendar with a comprehensive guide to all the competitions organised by the Association (notably, but not limited to, the Super Ball, Red Bull Street Style and the Youth World Championship), as well as rulings, rankings, news and training programs. The site will also offer a library of assets and resources for media, as well as a dedicated space for the WFFA partners – including the likes of Red Bull, Soccerex, SWRL, 4Freestyle, AYNIAB, GameDayand the most recent addition, German football powerhouse Borussia Dortmund.
“We are tremendously proud to present the new WFFA website to the freestyle community worldwide”, said Steve Elias, President of the WFFA. “Our aim has always been to help freestylers of any level and fans of the sport to connect with us and among themselves to strengthen the community: we are certain that our new digital home will be a huge step forward in this direction.”
“We believe this is great news, both for the WFFA and for the sport of Freestyle Football as a whole”, said Dan Wood, Head of Partnerships at the WFFA. “This is a cornerstone of the growth plan that we’ve designed for the Association and the sport, that will see a myriad of benefits not just for the community of freestylers but also for the fans of the sport and for our partners around the world. Fasten your seatbelts, though – there is still much more to come in the coming months!”.
Stay tuned to the official channels of the WFFA to follow the latest updates!
The World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA) and German football powerhouse Borussia Dortmund (BVB) have announced the launch of the inaugural BVB Global Freestyle Challenge.Powered by Evonik, this collaboration aims at bridging the football and freestyle worlds, and further raising awareness of the Freestyle Football art form. Calling out BVB fans from all over the world to showcase their creative football skills, three winners will be selected by the public and jury votes to receive special prizes, including merchandise gift boxes worth €600 each.
A think tank team consisting of WFFA’s freestyle experts from around the world have been chosen as the BVB 09 Freestyle Ambassadors. The 09 ambassadors are Alex Mendoza (USA), Torin Lynch (USA), Jannik Singpiel (Germany), Cheny (China), Taehee Kim (South Korea), Valerie Su (Singapore), Phat Nguyen (Vietnam), Zeem Ahmad (Malaysia) and the Freestyle World Champion Erlend Fagerli (Norway).
“I am delighted to establish this relationship with the WFFA, which comes at a particularly exciting time as we focus much more these days on content creation and digitalization,” said Benedikt Scholz, BVB Head of International & New Business.
Suresh Letchmanan, BVB Managing Director for Asia Pacific, highlighted further: “We are very happy to welcome the WFFA into our BVB family to help us find the best creative and talented BVB freestyler out there, who enjoys showcasing his or her skills as we work towards bringing special experiences to our fans around the world”.
Dan Wood, Co-Founder & Head of Partnerships at the WFFA, said: “It’s thrilling to launch this great partnership with a legendary club such as Borussia Dortmund. We are certain that this will offer a great opportunity to showcase the amazing skills of the BVB fan community, as well as educating wider audiences about our fantastic, COVID-proof sport”.
Erlend Fagerli, 5-time World Freestyle Champion and one of the nine BVB Freestyle ambassadors, added: “I’m really excited to have teamed up with my freestyle friends around the world and to be working with such a forward-thinking club as BVB. This is the beginning of many great projects that will help us educate the football world about Freestyle”.
Borussia Dortmund is one of the most successful football clubs in Germany. The club have won eight league championships, five DFB-Pokals, one UEFA Champions League, one Intercontinental Cup, and one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. With over 159,000 members in total, it is one of the five largest sports clubs in Germany and is the seventh-largest worldwide.
For more information about Borussia Dortmund (BVB), please visit:
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