| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | September 9, 1993 | ||
| Place of birth | Maracaibo, Venezuela | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder/Forward | ||
John Patrick Acquaviva (Born September 9, 1993 Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan football freestyler.
Contents |
John Patrick Acquaviva is the current Venezuelan freestyle football champion. Red Bull named him Venezuelan champion in 2009 after judging his performance in an online video competition.
John started showing interest in football (soccer), at the young age of 5 when his father enrolled him in a local team for youngsters, in La Azulita, Estado Mérida in Venezuela.
He played as a mid-fielder and later on as a striker/forward. When John was 13, he was injured playing a friendly football match in his school and as a result suffered a partial tear in the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee. It took him 6 months to heal but during this time he discovered a new sport called Freestyle Football,to which he was instantly attracted, although little was known about it in Venezuela in that time. After recuperating from his knee injury, John started practicing 4–5 hours a day, every day. He stopped playing football and concentrated on improving his touch and control of the ball. After 5 months of dedicated practice, he entered a national competition in Caracas, Venezuela, "The Red Bull Street Style Caracas 2008". He won the first 4 rounds, obtaining all possible votes in every round and then went up against the previous year's champion, before losing the final in a split 2-1 decision.
John says that this experience is what motivated him to keep practicing freestyle, even though everyone told him he should be dedicating to football and that freestyle was “a waste of time”. So in 2009 when he found out that Red Bull had organized an online video competition in which the public would vote and choose the best, John entered and 2 weeks after when voting concluded, he was nominated the winner, having achieved the majority of votes.
In August 2011 John participated in the Freestyle Football world championship in Prague, he qualified for the semifinals where he was defeated by Szymo, who would end up being crowned World Champion at said Championship. John is now currently ranked among'st the top 30 freestyle footballers in the world.
John is half British on his mother’s side. He spent some of his childhood in Leyland, England and is currently living in England.
He has worked with company’s such as Coca Cola Powerade and DirecTV.
He is the only Venezuelan freestyler to have been sponsored by Adidas.
He was part of the Global Powerade South Africa 2010 campaign which was filmed and produced by Sapient Corporation in December 2009 in Colombia and released worldwide in March 2010, John participated in the main football add, but only got a short secondary appearance in it, however he was the main character of 2 freestyle football adds from the Powerade “Keep Playing” campaign.
He organized the first ever "World Freestyle Day" in Maracaibo/Venezuela, the event was sponsored by Adidas and took place the 4th of September.
He inaugurated the first and only Freestyle Football Academy in Venezuela "Academia Freestyle Futbol JPA".
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/footie_teen_freestyler_bids_for_world_glory_1_3358252 - Lancashire Evening Post Article
http://www.panorama.com.ve/03-06-2010/635063.html - Panorama Newspaper Article
http://www.redbull.com.ve/es/ArticlePage.1217518894111-638017591.0/htmlArticlePage.action Article about the Red Bull street style 2008
http://www.panorama.com.ve/01-12-2010/696182.html - Newspaper Article Talking about the new Academy
http://caracas.eluniversal.com/2008/10/12/ccs_art_un-caraqueno-mostrar_1089923.shtml - Newspaper Article about the Red Bull Street style 2008, Towards the end of the article it mentions John Acquaviva.
http://www.panorama.com.ve/02-09-2010/668736.html - Panorama News Article
http://es.calameo.com/read/000097065536d29e70d76 - El Regional del Zulia Newspaper Article (Article on page 22)