In a tight Swedish final on Saturday night, Rickard “Palle” Sjölander kept his cool and battled himself to the Red Bull Street Style world final in South Africa!

Emil Jylhänlahti ended runner up after a close final battle and Gustav Björnberg claimed third. It was 22 year old Sjölander’s second consecutive win in the Swedish Red Bull Street Style. In 2008 he represented Sweden in Brazil as one of the top 16 ballers in the world making it into the final round.

”It feels unbelievably great right now! What a tension, it’s such a relief! It will be fantastic to represent Sweden in the world final again”, said Rickard Sjölander shortly after voted the winner by the three judges.

The 16 best freestyle footballers in the country were invited to the Swedish final, held deep inside a cave in eastern Stockholm. Before reaching the final in the unusual venue, they had all proven their colours in local qualifiers held in Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö. After the first round it became evident that it wouldn’t be easy for last year’s winner to repeat his win.

The bar had been raised since the 2008 final, and several ballers looked strong enough to bring home the ticket to South Africa. Nobody seemed to have Jylhänlahti's high levels of energy, perhaps a bit too high, costing him one misstake too many in the final battle. Gustav Björnberg impressed with an ultra smooth style and ball control, Mattias Linder displayed great balance manouvers and Oliver Cherek combined top skills with unmatched showmanship.

”I managed to pull off the tricks I wanted to do today without mistakes. It was the most important and I guess it made the difference in the end together with the fact that I combine many different styles”, Sjölander concluded.

The event was judged by a panel of three: the Dutch winner from 2008 and 2009, Daniel Rooseboom, Swedish freestyle football pioneer Mikael Hammar and Fredrik Johansson, world known for his 540 flair off the quarter pipe in Red Bull X-Fighters in Madrid 2008.