Billy Wingrove
| Billy Wingrove | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Wingrove in 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
William Wingrove 17 December 1982 London, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation |
Freestyle footballer Semi-professional footballer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 2003–present | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Known for |
F2 Freestylers (with Jeremy Lynch) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Katie Wingrove | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children |
Amelie[1] Roman[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Website | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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www | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
William "Billy" Wingrove (born 17 December 1982 in London) is an English freestyle footballer and semi-professional footballer.[5] He is probably best known for the YouTube channel he runs with fellow freestyle footballer Jeremy Lynch as the F2 Freestylers, which has over 1 million subscribers.[6]
Profile
Wingrove comes from a footballing family. His father played for Tottenham Hotspur and his 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.
Solo career
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.[7] 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.
F2 Freestylers
After performing at the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony, Wingrove and close friend Jeremy Lynch decided to begin performing together as a double act known as the F2 Freestylers.[8][9] They have given performances at various venues including Manchester United's Old Trafford and Norwich City's Carrow Road.[10][11]
Wingrove and Lynch also run a YouTube channel as the F2 Freestylers, which currently boasts over 1 million subscribers. They give tutorials of various football skills and have collaborated with various footballers including Ángel Di María, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Diego Costa.[6]
Personal life
Wingrove is married to wife Katie, with whom he has two children. Their daughter Amelie Iris was born on 2 October 2009,[12] while their son Roman was born on 3 March 2015.[2]
References
- ↑ "@Billywingrove on Twitter: "Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter Amelie. My love for this little girl is toooo much!! @klwingrove"". Twitter. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "@Billywingrove on Twitter: "Roman is born! Well done to my beautiful @klwingrove for being so strong and giving me the greatest gift in the world"". Twitter. 3 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "Living for kicks". The Independent (London). 2004-07-04. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
- ↑ Bandini, Paolo (2007-11-09). "Cup progress putting Ware on the map". Guardian (London). Retrieved 2011-02-22.
- ↑ "Support & Advice". Sport England. Retrieved 2011-02-22.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 "F2Freestylers reach a MILLION Subscribers !!!". F2 Freestylers / YouTube. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "Spurs juggler happy to be a control freak". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
- ↑ "The F2". The F2. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "Football Freestyle Double Act The F2 | FIFA Ballon D'or Performance". F2 Freestylers / YouTube. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "The F2 at Old Trafford". F2 Freestylers / YouTube. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "Anglian Home Improvements bring celebrated football freestylers back to Carrow Road". Norwich City Football Club. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
- ↑ "@Billywingrove on Twitter: "My Daughter Amelie's 3rd birthday today. Happy smiles all around"". Twitter. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2015.