THE NUMBERS...
The best freestylers from every corner of the world converge on South Africa next week for the Red Bull Street Style world finals. While they practise juggling a soccer ball, we juggle the figures…
61...
Freestylers from 61 countries will be at this year’s Red Bull Street Style world finals, from all five continents of the globe, an increase on the 45 nations who participated in the last finals of the freestyle football competition.
69,070...
South Africa’s second city, Cape Town, is hosting the Red Bull Street Style world finals. The city’s burgeoning population is said to number around 3.5m, though the last official census nine years ago recorded 2,893,251 inhabitants. Capetonian soccer fans have a choice of two top Premier Soccer League teams, Ajax Cape Town and Santos, and FIFA World Cup 2010 will also see the city hosting eight matches at the new 69,070-capacity Cape Town Stadium (also known as Green Point Stadium), including one of the semi-finals.
5,000...
More than 5,000 aspiring tricksters took part in the 200 or so qualifying events in the respective 61 countries involved in Red Bull Street Style. Events have been going on for many months – Latvia, for example, chose their winner Romāns Berezovskis some eight months back, whereas Michael Keishing from India booked his place just two months ago. But they’ll both be in Cape Town at the same time next week to find out who’ll be number one.
2008...
The last Red Bull Street Style World Finals were in São Paulo, Brazil, in 2008. Back then, the winner was Frenchman Arnaud ‘Séan’ Garnier, who hails from Malakoff, a south-western suburb in the Île de France some 5km from Paris city centre. The 25-year-old will be back to defend his crown in South Africa next week.
3, 2, 1...
The catchphrase of Red Bull Street Style is ‘Three minutes, two players, one ball’. The battling duo take turns at least every 20 seconds to wow the crowd and the three judges on the panel with their skills before passing the ball back to their opponent. They must pack as much as possible into the 180 seconds, and will be judged on three elements: style, creativity and control.
386...
Head judge will be Dutch soccer legend Edgar Davids, who made 386 senior league appearances for six top European clubs – Ajax (over two spells), Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Internazionale and Tottenham Hotspur – scoring 31 goals. He also played 68 European games (three goals) and appeared 74 times for his country. One of his six international goals was a crucial last-minute winner over Yugoslavia in the 1998 World Cup where the Netherlands eventually finished fourth and Davids was named in the World Cup All-Star XI. Davids also features in the FIFA 100 list of the world’s greatest living footballers, selected by Pelé, no less.
16...
Initially, a group stage on the first day of the finals will narrow the competition down to the last 16 freestylers, who all live to fight another day. The second phase of the contest whittles competitors down in a series of head-to-heads to the last eight, then the last four, then the final, with a play-off for third and fourth spots.
4.5...
A specific uniform MONTA soccer ball will be used at all times during the finals. The ball is a FISFA size 4.5 with a circumference of no less than 64cm and no more than 67cm, which is between official FIFA size 4 and 5. The ball is heavier than that used in the national qualifying rounds for better control, and weighs in at around 430-490g. The ball is also slightly rounder than previous balls.
