THE KEEPY-UPPY KING: Hanging out with Nani, drinking whiskey with Roberto Carlos, or teaching Fernando Torres’ kids his tricks… How one Irish man conquered the world of Freestyle Football

Conor Reynolds was not in Paris last weekend for the European freestyle football championships as he had a prior commitment with a wedding.

The five-time Irish champion would have been there, otherwise. Only last month, he was in the Netherlands as one of five judges who crowned the new world champion.

The Galway native has been doing tricks with a football for more than half his life now and it has taken him all over the globe.

From being flown on a private jet to the Seychelles to perform at a party for a Saudi Prince to the Four Seasons in the Maldives where he did a workshop for kids that included the offspring of Fernando Torres and Arjen Robben. ‘Torres’ kids picked it up fairly quickly,’ he recalls.

Conor Reynolds has become one of the finest freestyle footballers in the world

Or there was the fact that Nani was one of the judges when he competed in the world championships for the first time in 2019, a special thrill for this avid Manchester United fan.

But perhaps the highlight – and certainly the most surreal moment – was drinking whiskey with Roberto Carlos in some random pub in Poland.

These are the sort of things that would not have happened if he had just continued to be the left winger for Cregmore FC in Turloughmore.

At 31, Reynolds is one of the best in the world at what he does – tricks with a football.

He proved that a few years ago when he finished second in the world championships and what was all the more remarkable about that is that he managed it, having had spent more than 70 days in bed due to complications with a serious ankle injury.

Getting to meet Manchester United star Nani was a career highlight for United fan Conor

He was in transition year when he first came across freestyle football one afternoon, scrolling through Youtube.

‘I was injured at the time, so I wasn’t playing football. And I came across this, and just thought that looks cool! I want to try that. Went out to the back garden and tried to do a trick, Around the World, and once I got the hang of that, it just sucked me in.’

Within a few weeks he had left behind the ordinary world of 11-a-side football and stepped into this strange new world.

The freestyle community was small in Ireland at the time, little more than a dozen lads who contacted each other online.

Reynolds taught football skills to the children of Liverpool legend Fernando Torres

‘When I was starting out with this, there was only a few of us in the community. We would meet at the Spire in O’Connell Street, because most of those involved were from Dublin or maybe surrounding county like Kildare, so, that was the most convenient meeting point. I’d come up on the train from Galway.

‘We’d meet at the Spire, hope that the rain stayed off and looked for an empty car park, hoping that we wouldn’t get chucked out by a security guard.

A night drinking whiskey with Brazil icon Roberto Carlos is a standout memory for Conor

‘But now, I have the keys to Turloughmore Community Centre, so I can go in there and practice whenever I want. I have come a long way from those early days.’

Given that his hometown is in Galway hurling heartland, there might have been some funny looks locally when he was beginning.

‘Obviously, Turloughmore is a massive hurling area, it’s all about hurling around here, so I suppose when I was doing tricks with a soccer ball, some people were wondering what I was doing. But they have all got behind me hugely now.’

Conor Reynold’s freestyle skills have seen him travel the world to various exotic locations

Reynolds was only 17 when he got his first gig with the freestyle football, performing for a St Patrick’s Day show in Ballina.

And after completing a Business Management degree in college, he decided to make a fist of it as a professional. Not sure where it would take him. Early on, it took him all the way to the Seychelles.

‘I had just won my first Irish championships, this was back in 2017, and that’s when some brands started to come in for me.

‘It was never a plan to do this full-time, I just sort of fell into it but it wasn’t until after college that I fully went for it.

‘It wasn’t long after that when I went to the Seychelles to do a show for an Arab prince. He had become obsessed with samba after the 2014 World Cup and it was the theme of the party.

Showcasing the type of skills Conor can execute requires years of dedicated practice

‘They flew me in for 48 hours, it was 24 hours of travel to get there, stayed for two days and then 24 hours home again. But it was an amazing experience.’

Eighteen months later, he was competing in his first world championships in the United States with Luis Nani as one of the judges.

‘That was special for me, as an United fan, to be doing tricks in front of Nani, who is judging me.’

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. Reynolds calls freestyle ‘a sport mixed with art form’ but it does take its toll on the body.

The constant jumping and stretching of limbs cause a lot of wear and tear. He suffered his most serious injury during the Covid pandemic.

‘I was practising during Covid when I tore ligaments and tendons in my ankle. Because of the pandemic and lockdown, it was four months before I had surgery and that’s when they realised I had actually fractured my ankle as well.

‘So, basically, I was walking around for four months with a broken ankle. And when they did the surgery at St Vincent’s, they had to put a metal bracket into my ankle to stabilise it, because I had done so much damage to it.

‘I ended up in bed for 72 days, and basically had to learn to walk again. I could started that process the following January and by March, I had lost 16 kilos because I couldn’t exercise.

‘I had to go through a lot of physio with Alan Daly from Claregalway, who was brilliant with me and kept me motivated. I did wonder if I was able to get back to the level I was at.

‘But I had learnt to walk again and started working with a ball again and then that August, I came second in the world championships in Prague.

‘So, in an eight month period, I learnt how to walk again and finished second in the world. It’s my greatest achievement.’

The advent of Instagram and other forms of social media has opened up the sport to the masses – and made Reynolds even more well-known in the freestyle community.

There are now around 50 trying to out-do each other with tricks in Ireland – and even more globally. With the likes of Ronaldinho and Neymar as the growing sport’s ambassadors, it has increased in popularity in South America, Asia and Europe.

‘With the likes of Ronaldinho backing it, the sport has grown, but it is a completely different sport to football. I can’t do what they can don on the pitch, obviously, but they can’t do what I do.

‘And it is physically demanding. I train for a couple of hours a day five days a week.’

Although now a specialist freestyler, Reynolds has not ruled out a return to regualr football

In competition, such as the worlds where he is a judge, there are only two rules. You must use a size five football and you can’t use your hands.

Competitors are then judged on areas such as originality, execution and difficulty over three rounds of 30 seconds each.

Judging is something that Reynolds wants to do more and more of, especially on a global stage. And maybe sometime, he might go back to the more regular football.

‘I tried to play some football while I was freestyling, but it was too much because you are using completely different muscle groups. It’s something I might go back to when I am over-35 and have retired from this.’