Billy Wingrove

Billy Wingrove
Born William Wingrove
(1982-12-17) 17 December 1982
London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
Occupation Freestyle footballer
footballer
Years active 2003–present
Known for F2Freestylers
(with Jeremy Lynch)
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Children Amelie[1]
Roman[2]
Association football career
Playing position Midfielder, forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2002–2004 Enfield
2004–2009 Ware[3][4]
2009–2010 Cheshunt Corinthians
2010–2014 Hoddesdon Town
2014– Broxbourne Borough
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
Website www.billywingrove.com

Billy Wingrove (born 17 December 1982) is a freestyle footballer and a former professional footballer.[5] He is best known for the YouTube channel he runs with fellow freestyle footballer and friend Jeremy Lynch as the F2Freestylers, which has over100.000 million followers across all social media platforms.[6][7]

Profile

Wingrove comes from a footballing family. His father played for Tottenham Hotspur and his cousin played for Arsenal.[8]

After developing his footballing skills for a number of years, Wingrove 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. Wingrove has since featured in various promotions for brands such as Coca-Cola, O2, Barclaycard, Disney and Sky Sports.

Solo career

Wingrove became the first freestyler to be signed up as a professional "Football Freestyler" by the Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur.[9] Wingrove displayed and taught 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.

F2Freestylers

After performing at the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony, Wingrove and close friend Jeremy Lynch decided to begin performing together as a double act known as the F2Freestylers.[10][11] They have given performances at various venues including Manchester United's Old Trafford, Chelsea's Stamford Bridge and Norwich City's Carrow Road.[12][13]

Wingrove and Lynch also run a YouTube channel as the F2Freestylers, which currently boasts just over 8 million subscribers. They give tutorials of various football skills and have collaborated with various footballers including Lionel Messi, Mesut Özil, Eden Hazard, Ángel Di María, Steven Gerrard, Neymar, Luis Suárez, Gerard Piqué, Riyad Mahrez, Demarai Gray and Diego Costa.[6]

In 2016, the F2Freestylers debuted on television in the United States, with their series "It's Called Football" on the NBC Sports Network. Produced by Whistle Sports, the first two episodes premiered on 26 December 2016 and featured Chelsea and Arsenal.[14]

The F2Freestylers played in the Wembley Cup against Hashtag United. Wingrove was ruled out of the match due to an injury to the cartilage in his hip. The match, which took place on 7 October 2017, at Wembley Stadium, saw the F2Freestylers team 'Tekkers Town' lose 6–1 to Hashtag United.

Personal life

Wingrove is married to wife Katie, with whom he has two children. Their daughter Amelie Iris was born on 2 October 2009,[15] while their son Roman was born on 3 March 2015.

He is also a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "@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. 1 2 "@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. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Living for kicks". The Independent. London. 4 July 2004. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  4. ↑ Bandini, Paolo (9 November 2007). "Cup progress putting Ware on the map". Guardian. London. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  5. ↑ "Support & Advice". Sport England. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2011.
  6. 1 2 "F2Freestylers reach a MILLION Subscribers !!!". F2 Freestylers / YouTube. 24 March 2015. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "From teenage rejects to YouTube stars". The Times. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  8. ↑ "Billy Wingrove Biography". Sport England. Archived from the original on 8 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  9. ↑ "Spurs juggler happy to be a control freak". Evening Standard. Retrieved 20 July 2008.
  10. ↑ "The F2". The F2. Archived from the original on 16 August 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  11. ↑ "Football Freestyle Double Act The F2 | FIFA Ballon D'or Performance". F2Freestylers / YouTube. 31 January 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  12. ↑ "The F2 at Old Trafford". F2Freestylers / YouTube. 13 August 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  13. ↑ "Anglian Home Improvements bring celebrated football freestylers back to Carrow Road". Norwich City Football Club. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  14. ↑ http://www.nbcsports.com/video/its-called-football-premieres-monday-december-26-3430pm-et-nbcsn
  15. ↑ "@Billywingrove on Twitter: "My Daughter Amelie's 3rd birthday today. Happy smiles all around"". Twitter. 2 October 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2015.

jamie dornan ;)

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