World Freestyle Day - Some extracts from the book I'm writing detailing the journey of building a sport

A little over 10 years ago I was sitting in quiet little corner of London dreaming up the next plans around formalising the network and growth for freestyle football. Having already connected with key leaders and icons in the game including Mr Woo, Palle, Sean Garnier, Abbas Farid, Nam the Man, Lucaso, Daniel Rooseboom de Vries, Steve Elias and many more… the next step was to begin the notion of unity… a network is nothing without unity.

The concept was simple… how many people could juggle the ball on the same day all over the world… there must be a world record for that somewhere!

Within a few weeks, World Freestyle Day was born after seeing a natural gap in the sporting calendar around the first week of September… so forever more 1st September has been celebrated as a piece of unity in the world of freestyle football, but ultimately will continue to grow and hopefully inspire as many people as possible to pick up a ball and get active, regardless of their location or situation… all you need is a ball!

I remember the first movers at that time who initially joined a private network group that I set up on www.fthree.net. It allowed the community to meet and share ideas (long before the breadth of social networks and groups were established that we now come to expect). The very first member was the head of the Olympic Committee in Vanuatu. I had never even heard of Vanuatu prior to this, but upon further investigation and discussion, it was revealed that over 300 young people were meeting every single weekend on this small, beautiful, volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean and practicing together. I later had the pleasure of visiting the Island and meeting everyone to give them an England shirt signed by Rio Ferdinand who was also a keen fan of Freestyle through his digital #5 magazine production. There were groups in Pakistan, Colombia, South Africa and Russia all getting involved and it was clear that this was something very special… like-minded people from all corners of the world could come together and be one.

Four years on from that date and after growing support was seen throughout the world, one of the inspirations for many freestylers of today – Ronaldinho, noticed what was happening on social media and jumped in to show his support. We later installed him as an ambassador for the sport in recognition of the way he brought the street skills to the pitch in his warm-up and general play. A very exciting and humbling experience.

Freestyle and Street Football is more than just a few tricks in the street… it is a lifestyle, a culture, which is still really in its infancy, but that has the potential to bring play back to the streets all over the world and celebrate individuals for who they are… not who they are told to be by society. It is real. There is no hiding place. It instils core values of respect, humility, learning from failure, self-confidence and much more.