The Indian Freestyle scenario
INDIA - the beautiful country with its multi lingual and multi cultural population is also home to a handful of youths who have picked up on the sport of freestyle football. Now it is true that freestyle football originated in Asia only, India did not caught up with this art only until a few years ago. Started by a few youngsters somewhere in between 2007–2008, the country has now more than 100 people across the country involved in this beautiful sport of freestyle football.
If I were to give a major credit to a single factor for the explosion of freestyle football across the country, it would have to be Red Bull Street Style — A premier freestyle football competition that features top freestyle footballers from all over the world. It was due to this competition in 2008 that freestyle football gained popularity all over India. People got more conscious towards it and started practicing daily just for the RBSS. Also once you start it you are bound to be in love with freestyle football. It may seem a bit silly and mundane to keep juggling the ball in one place and not move around much, but the joy you experience while doing freestyle is not something that I can some up in a few words here.
Now that you know how things got cooked up and started, lets fast forward to the current generation of freestyle football in the country.
First of all, I just want to thank everyone in the community for being so amazing. If not for you guys, I would never have gotten into freestyle football this deep that I am today. As it is a tight knit community, almost everyone knows everyone. Scattered throughout the country you will find more of them in the metro cities of the country indicating that freestyle football has yet to go some way before it reaches its full potential in the country. I would say that some efforts are being made into this sector, but apart form social media there is not much that can be done at the current stage.
Apart from being all good, there are many downsides of being a freestyle footballer in the country. The ultimate dream of every freestyle footballer is to make a living out of it so that he can continue to practice it as long as possible. Although there are a number of people around the world making a decent living off freestyle football, the same can’t be said about India. There are only 3–4 people who are making a living of freestyle football across the whole country. That is a pretty disappointing number for anyone who is thinking of making a career in freestyle football.
Now the root problem here is that there are not just many opportunities for people to make a stable earning by just freestyle football. There are two major sources of income. One, by advertisements and live shows. Second, by teaching it to other people. With the first one, the frequency of them is not constant and also they tend to be given to those who are more well known rather than a new and more talented freestyler. And with the second point, it is difficult to find students who would do this physical activity rather than play video games sitting in their homes. What has happened to this young generation!
Hence it is not uncommon for people leaving freestyle football because they just cannot afford to continue it. It is always sad to see that much amount of talent just go to waste.
Despite all these setbacks, freestyle football is just like a time bomb waiting to explode and become the next big thing here. The question is are you willing to be a part of this change ?
