The freestyle football maestro keeps a ball in the air for 24 hours in London’s Covent Garden.
The cobbled streets of London’s Covent Garden have seen many street performers over the years, but nothing like Dan Magness. The freestyle footballer from Milton Keynes, England, juggled a football with his feet and head for a staggering 24 hours, destroying Martinho Eduardo Orige of Brazil’s previous world record of 19 hours and 30 minutes in the process.
Thousands of well-wishers, shoppers, revellers, photographers and journalists arrived to witness the feat, which Magness attempted to promote PlayStation Freestylers – a competition where boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 16 can submit videos of their best tricks for the chance to go to the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final in Rome.
He, along with Arsenal winger Aaron Ramsey and former Liverpool central defender John Scales, will judge the finalists, and he had sound advice for any entrants. “Practice, practice, practice is all I can say, really,” he said, before climbing into the glass cube where his challenge took place. “And don’t get too disheartened if you see someone else who is better than you. Work on your own style – originality is very important.
“To prepare for this I’ve put in a lot of practice and plenty of running. Staying awake and maintaining focus is going to be the biggest challenge.”
Scales, on hand to support Magness, agreed. “Mental fatigue is going to be the biggest obstacle for Dan,” he said. “Physical endurance is obviously a factor, but he has trained for that and I think he can cope with it, but one slip means it’s all over and that’s a lot of pressure.”
“The longest I’d be able to manage is 30 seconds… maybe five minutes if I trained. It’s a hell of a challenge and I’m full of admiration.
“The idea of PlayStation Freestylers,” he added, “is to get kids playing with a ball and working on their technique.
“We’re looking for originality; people love to see freestylers pushing the boundaries and trying different things, and we want to see people enjoying themselves and having a go. It’s all about building a community where people can submit their clips, learn from each other and, above all, have fun.”
Fortunately, you don’t have to keep a ball up for 24 hours to enter PlayStation Freestylers; just submit an unedited video, between 1:45 minutes and 2:15 minutes, of your best tricks and flicks to youtube.com/psfreestylers.
And congratulations to Dan Magness for an amazing achievement.
