In an unprecedented all-digital World
Final, French legend Mélody Donchet became the first athlete of any gender to claim
four wins in the official World Championship of freestyle football, while Erlend
Fagerli of Norway achieved a long-awaited grail as the only freestyler in history
to earn a second title in men’s competition. Best Trick honors judged by
football superstar Cesc Fàbregas went to Norway’s Brynjar Fagerli and Hungary’s
Kitti Szász.

After months of competition featuring athletes from around
the globe, the climax of the first freestyle football World Championship to be held
entirely online saw 24 players from 11 countries battling head-to-head, live
online across thousands of miles. But in the final moments, the last two contenders
were Norwegian brothers tricking just meters away from each other in the same
gymnasium. Here’s all you need to know.
- Ever since the first Red Bull Street
Style tournament in 2008, the World Final battles have been held on stage in
front of large crowds in global destinations – but this time, the participants,
the judges and the spectators were all online across a range of time zones. Whether
they were streaming from Japan or Iran, Colombia or the Philippines, the UAE,
the USA, the UK or Europe, the structure was the same: two players answering each
other’s challenges in three intense back-and-forth rounds of 30 seconds each.
- The men’s final pitted current Norwegian
national champion Brynjar Fagerli against the 2018 Red Bull Street Style World
Champion, his younger brother Erlend. The pair threw down eye-popping trick after
trick, driving the judges to a split decision. It all came down to the vote for
Originality, and Erlend’s fresh moves gave him the nod. Third place went to Sebastian
Peña Morales, a Colombian contender known as the “Machine.”
- The women’s action came down largely to
high-intensity battles among the three women who together hold all the World
Final championships ever awarded. Donchet, who needed to come back from knee
injury as she has so many times in her career, defeated two-time World Final winner
Kitti Szász of Hungary in the Semi-Finals, then had to face 2018 champion
Aguska Mnich of Poland in the final. But the French legend was unstoppable, combining
technical moves with flair like breakdance spins to extend her legacy. Szász took third place, but Lia Lewis of the
UK – the newcomer she faced in the bronze medal match – is one to
watch.
- Viewing from home in Monaco, World
Cup Champion and two-time European title-winner Cesc Fàbregas was the
exclusive judge for the Best Trick competition. The Spanish “assist king,” who
currently plays midfield for AS Monaco, awarded the men’s crown to Brynjar
Fagerli for his Next-Door with a Roly-Poly and called out Szász for her
innovative karate kick moves.
- The WFFA judging panel was made up of
five famed international freestylers, each focusing on a different criterion:
Head Judge Gautier Fayolle of France (Performance), Luca Chiarvesio of Italy
(Difficulty), Michal “Michryc” Rycaj (Originality), Martin Schopf of Austria
(Execution), and – the first-ever female judge on a World Final panel
– Jasmijn Janssen of the Netherlands (Overall).
- Presented in collaboration with the
World Freestyle Football Association (WFFA), the Red Bull Street Style World
Final is the official World Championship of freestyle football. Only the most
creative, technical and stylish player in each gender can earn the title of Red
Bull Street Style World Champion. In the new online format, Red Bull Street
Style 2020 was open to everyone around the world, and talents from 93 countries
entered by submitting videos of their football skills. By the World Final, a series of
challenges had whittled the field to the best of the best: 16 male and 8 female footballers.
- For 2021, Red Bull Street
Style will return with a combination qualifying process to be announced, culminating
with on-stage battles for live crowds at the World Final, to be held in Spain
in the last quarter of the year.
Watch the groundbreaking football tricks from the 2020 Red Bull Street
Style World Final for yourself, live-on-demand on Red Bull TV and on YouTube.
Stay up to date with Red Bull Street Style and freestyle footballers all year long at redbullstreetstyle.com
and WFFA social channels.
QUOTES:
Erlend Fagerli, Norway
2020 Red Bull Street Style Men’s World
Champion
“I’ve been working so hard for this. I’ve been training
freestyle for nearly 12 years, and especially for this competition I’ve
been training really well with Brynjar. To battle him is always so difficult. I
had to give my all, my very best. The online conditions worked really fine. I managed
to show some new variations, so I’m really happy with my performance and so
happy to be the champion of 2020. But it’s not just about winning, it’s about always
evolving and showing your style – and having fun!”
MéLODY DONCHET, FRANCE
2020 Red Bull Street Style Women’s World Champion
“I feel good because I couldn’t train for eight months due
to an injury. Because of my knee I thought I would not be able to win because I
couldn’t work on my lowers anymore, or even on all there is to do standing. I
tried to do as much as I could with different moves, but I never thought this
would happen – never, never never. So I’m happy, and I also want to credit all
the female freestylers who participated and give props to all the newcomers.”
CESC FÀBREGAS
Football superstar from Spain, current Monaco midfielder, Red Bull Street
Style Best Trick judge
“I really had a fantastic night, it was amazing. I was
looking for creativity, and I saw moves I could never do in my dreams. The
competition level was so, so high – I saw people bringing new things every
time. Congratulations to all, because they are true winners.”
SÉAN GARNIER
Freestyle football legend and World Final
expert
“We have been all around the world with Red Bull Street
Style over the years, and this time it was a new format. Freestyle football is
about energy, it’s about how you bring what’s inside of you to the ball. You
can reach this level if you are really, really passionate, and everyone was really
strong.”
Photocredit: Marc Schwarz for Red Bull Content
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