Billy Wingrove
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Wingrove | ||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder/Forward | ||
Billy Wingrove (born 15 November 1982 in London, England) is a British football freestyler.
Profile
Wingrove began learning his football freestyle skills as a child. Beginning with the standard keepie uppie skills in the local park, Wingrove would stay behind when all his friends had gone home, to practice some extravagant soccer skills that would impress his friends and family.[1]
He began to study and copy some of the tricks shown on TV by Maradona, Romario and the rest of the Brazil squad in the famous Nike 'Airport' commercial.[2]
Wingrove comes from a footballing family, but unlike his father, who played for Tottenham Hotspur and cousin who played for Arsenal, Billy preferred to use and express his skills as an individual instead of as part of a team, although his talents have still established him with local semi-professional sides.
As he grew older he learned more and more tricks and became part of the network of young football freestylers in the London area. In 2003, Wingrove entered the Nike freestyle competition in London Earl's Court, and out of 6,000 contestants, he reached the semi-finals. Coca Cola, O2, Barclaycard, Disney and Sky Sports have all since used Wingrove for promotions or advertising.
Portfolio
Wingrove has been working as a 'professional' football freestyler since the 2003 Nike Freestyle event in London.
Billy has performed his freestyle tricks and skills live on TV for Nickelodeon, Blue Peter and Central News as well as performing on BBC1's A Question of Sport and Match of the Day.[3][4]
In 2005 Wingrove appeared in a KDDI TV commercial with Japanese footballer Shinji Ono. Shortly after this Wingrove appeared Manchester United's Wayne Rooney for a Coca Cola promotion and was also featured with J-League stars in Japanese football magazine Footival. Wingrove's work has also been featured in the UK magazines FourFourTwo and Match.
Wingrove became the first football freestyler to be signed up as a professional 'Football Freestyler' by a professional with his friend Fidan Morina from Kosovo club[5] when Premiership team Tottenham Hotspur signed him up. Billy displays and teaches his freestyle tricks and skills for Tottenham's coaching in the community schemes, corporate sponsors and on the pitch for half time and pre-match entertainment for Premiership games. He has also appeared as half time entertainment for England international matches.