| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Wingrove | ||
| Date of birth | 15 November 1982 | ||
| Place of birth | London, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder / Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2007 | Enfield | ? | (?) |
| 2009– | Ware[1][2] | ? | (?) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Billy Wingrove (born 15 November 1982 in London, England) is a British football freestyler and semi-professional footballer.[3]
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Wingrove comes from a footballing family, his father, played for Tottenham Hotspur and cousin played for Arsenal.
As he grew older he learned more tricks and became part of a 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, losing out to Hee Young Woo. Coca Cola, O2, Barclaycard, Disney and Sky Sports have all since used Wingrove for promotions or advertising.
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.
In 2005, Wingrove appeared in a KDDI TV commercial with Japanese footballer Shinji Ono. Shortly after this Wingrove appeared with 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 club when Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur signed him.[4] Wingrove 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 Premier League games. He has also appeared as half time entertainment for England international matches.