Weekly Wednesday Interview: John Acquaviva: Football Freestyler

Ladies and Gentleman introducing John Acquaviva. The freestyle champion has kindly agreed to do an interview with me.

John Patrick Acquaviva is currently the Venezuelan freestyle football champion, and ranked amongst the top 16 in the world. In March 2012 John was named an Olympic Torch Bearer after having been nominated as a Future Flame on the Coca Cola website, John was the first freestyler to be involved with the Olympics in any way.

I hope you know the format now. Five questions: who, what, when, where and why.

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Who is your inspiration?
My inspiration are people who have accomplished things against all odds and by themselves, people such as Rodney Mullen (skateboard legend), Zyzz (Australian bodybuilder), etc.

What keeps you in Manchester?
I've loved Manchester ever since the first time I came here, its my favourite city in England for living in, the main thing I like about it is that you can live somewhere relaxed and laid back but yet be only 10 minutes away from the city life, if it had better weather it would be the ideal city (but that's just England for you!)

When did you realise that you had this talent?
I never "realized" I had a talent for freestyle, I was absolutely terrible at it when I started off and it took me months and months of training 5-6 hours a day by myself to learn my first few tricks, I wasn't one of those guys who just picks the balls up and starts doing crazy tricks after a few days.

Where would be your ideal freestyle destination?
Merida in Venezuela, ideal temperature and hardly ever rains, that would definitely be one of my ideal training destinations, as far as freestyle culture and crews go it would probably be Paris.

Why football?
It has always been a constant strive for self improvement and to be the best version of myself I can possibly be, not just in freestyle but in every aspect of my life, I currently have a lot of hobbies and interests such as photography, film making, dj'ing and music production, fitness and weightlifting, social media marketing, web design, etc. I like to keep myself busy with new challenging things all the time otherwise I get bored.
I've always said comparing football with freestyle is like comparing hockey with figure skating, just because one of the elements is the same doesn't mean they, as sports, have anything to do with one another.

and finally
Which footballer would you model your game on?
I don't model myself after any footballer, I don't like or watch football at all!

Thank you very much John. Great answers and great to see that hard work can lead to great opportunities.