Kamloops soccer player Julian Muckle practices his soccer freestyle skills in the backyard up to four hours a day. It's kept him busy during COVID-19 (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

SOCCER FREESTYLING

Kamloops soccer player turns to freestyling during pandemic

Jul 21, 2020 | 5:32 PM

KAMLOOPS — Julian Muckle loves soccer — so much so that he has a full setup in his backyard. He’s leaned on it during COVID, practicing for up to four hours a day.

“I think just getting better,” he said, pinpointing what motivates him to be out for so long. “My goal is to eventually play pro soccer and I want to become the most skillful pro soccer player ever.”

It’s not just the beautiful game he wants to perfect. Muckle also loves what is called freestyle football. It’s the art of juggling a soccer ball with incredible skill and performing certain tricks. His goal is to do that professionally one day as well.

“Professional freestyle is mainly based out of the U.K., and since it’s a smaller sport, there’s probably only a million people that do it around the world,” he said. “All the competition, they do it as a tour because it’s worldwide.”

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Muckle and his friend Tyler Schoeder have started posting videos of their freestyling on YouTube. They’ve been sharing them all over their social media channels. Some of the videos have received praise from some high-level players.

“We’ve had over 12 professional athletes look at our stuff on Instagram, including the five-time freestyling world champion Andrew Henderson. He’s liked and commented on a couple of our posts. We’ve had players from Liverpool and the Whitecaps.”

Working on his freestyle skills and posting videos has kept Muckle busy this summer amid COVID-19, but he admits he misses the game.

“It’s been pretty hard for me,” he said. “I don’t get to play soccer with people as much, so it’s been a lot more freestyling than actual soccer. But I enjoy freestyling almost as much as soccer, so it’s still playing soccer and getting better.”

It’s not known when the Kamloops Youth Soccer Association resume league games. In the meantime, Muckle will keep working towards his goal of professional freestyler.