Tarun Kumar Chadee: A Mauritian football freestyler

20-year-old Tarun Chadee has created a buzz on the net with his videos on freestyle football. One of his videos has attracted thousands of views. Along with his 16-year-old friend Yuvraj Sunkur, they are promoting freestyle soccer in Mauritius. A talent to discover and applaud…

Tarun Chadee is currently studying Physical Education at the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE). Freestyle football is a discipline that has become his passion. “I draw my inspiration from everything around me. While watching a dancer, I try to imitate their moves in my freestyle. Freestyle soccer does not need a coach.  It is all about being creative with the ball and doing whatever pleases you. Freestyle football is very popular around the world and there are plenty of videos on the internet,” claims the young man.

It is in 2009 when he was in Form 3 that he discovered this type of football through his friends. “Some friends showed me online videos of freestyle football. As I was unable to play normal football, I decided to try freestyle football. I can say that I do not regret this choice,” he shares proudly. 

Moreover, freestyle is a means through which Tarun expresses himself. “When I perform I tend to understand myself more. When you start learning about yourself, you start expressing yourself better. This concept has really helped me in my studies. I started to perform on my own and in my bedroom. I tried different moves secretly and many people did not know what I was doing.”

In 2012, he met Gautier Fayolle, who is a world Champion in freestyle and in 2014 he came across Daniel Cutting, who holds a Guinness World Record in freestyle. 

Misconception of freestyle football 

Unfortunately, as stated by Tarun, people in Mauritius do not understand that freestyle football and football itself are two different disciplines. “People believe that in order to be good at freestyle football, you must be a footballer first. This is completely false. You can be good at football and not at freestyle football and vice versa,” he clarifies. 

Dreams…

Tarun has already his fan followers and people who believe he is the best freestyler in Mauritius. However, he wants to prove himself to the world by participating in a well-known competition. “I haven’t yet had an opportunity or platform to showcase my talent. In Mauritius there are no such competitions. Another dream is to perform at the rooftop of a building in Port-Louis,” he avers. 

Advice 

He advises the young generations to believe in themselves and work hard to achieve their target in life. “Each individual has a talent. Just believe in yourself and pave your way to success. No one can stop you from being successful.”

Some quick moves 

• Being a freestyler requires a lot of hard work and extremely a lot of patience, so make sure that is met.
• Yoga is really helpful and stretching your legs and shoulders make you flexible and make freestyle easier for you
• The key is practicing. Do all the tricks for a month and after that you will be good at it.
• Get a soccer ball (not pumped too hard) and start practicing juggling. The key to that is to try to keep the ball below your hip and put a backward spin on it. Juggling helps your ball control and the speed of your legs. Practice juggling for 1 hour every day for about a month, most likely you are going to be an expert in juggling and you will be able to do 100 keep-ups (if you practice).
• Another basic trick is Around the World (ATW) when you flick the ball up go around it, and start juggling after you are done. This is not as easy as it sounds. For this trick you need a lot of speed and again a lot of patience. You should begin with the motion of it, and try doing it as fast as possible. When you think you are ready, out a ball in the play. Again practice for an hour a day for about 2 months and you can master this. But this trick is a lot harder than juggling so you need more patience. (Note that you can do this trick from juggling or from a stall, in both cases you should start going around the ball right after you flick it up, for juggling ATW, you should hit the ball from the right side of your foot for right legged people, and from the left side of your foot for left legged people.)
• Another basic trick that will get you the ‘oohs and aahs’ is the neck stall. Similar to foot stall you balance it on your neck. You can do this trick from a foot stall, you flick it up this time about half a meter higher than your head. Then you cushion the ball on your neck keeping you back straight on a 90 degree angle and keep your arm pointing back keeping your elbows straight. The key move in this trick is to cushion the ball on your neck, meaning you take the power of the ball away by going down at the same time as the ball only a bit slower than it so the power can be absorbed to your back/neck. Practice this trick for about half an hour every day for 2 weeks and you can perfect it. This trick is much easier than ATW.
• After you have perfected these 3 tricks, step your game up and link them all together. For example you can begin by juggling then going to a foot stall, and then do ATW, followed by another foot stall and a neck stall. If you are able to do all these three moves and keep the ball off the ground, you are going to be given respect.