Hindustan Times (Patna) - Hindustan Times (Patna) - Live
Meet Delhi’s maverick freestyling footballer
21-year-old tells us how freestyle football changed his life
Ever heard of freestyle football? Well, you must have seen videos of street footballers, that showcase their amazing dribbling and ball juggling tricks. Freestyle football is a subset of football that can be defined as the art of self-expression through football. The sport truly captures the essence of ‘joga bonito’, a popular Portuguese phrase that means to play the
sport beautifully.
DELHI’S OWN FREESTYLE
21-year-old Nikhil Krishna is a professional freestyle footballer. He goes by the name Nikk Freestyler. A Delhiite from Dyal Singh College, DU, wants to popularise the art in the country. Nikk has appeared in an ad featuring Italian football legend Alessandro Del Piero, DutchSpanish footballer Hans Mulder and Spanish professional footballer Bruno Herrero Arias. Nikk was also a part of the jury at the Indian freestyle championship in 2016 . He also works as a virtual coach for Active Fun Academy, an online education platform.
THE BEGINNING:
I started playing football since sixth grade and I loved it. I had joined a football club, but later I realised that there was not much scope. Hence, I switched to freestyle football. The art transformed my life. It helped me shed stage fear and express myself.
DECODING FREESTYLE FOOTBALL:
Freestyling doesn’t need much space to practice. Football and futsal is played on hard court and it’s a five-aside match) need other players to play, but in freestyle football you can practise all alone or in group.
POPULARIZING IT IN INDIA:
My group is doing its bit by organising competitions with the help of Freestyle Football Federation. We need to spread awareness about the art by conducting workshops at schools. Freestyle footballers can perform at college events, corporate events and product launches etc.
THE CHALLENGES:
There is no steady income and consistency in our work. There is lack of recognition by media. But, I am confident the art will become big one day, we will be competing with globally famed freestyle footballers.
FREESTYLE FOOTBALL IS A SUBSET OF FOOTBALL THAT CAN BE DEFINED AS THE ART OF SELFEXPRESSION THROUGH FOOTBALL