The past two months have given players plenty of downtime and thus plenty of opportunity to work on the things that are generally less useful on the pitch, such as fancy tricks that will get you tackled rudely should you attempt to do them during a normal game.
And some of them have been putting that time to good use indeed. Case in point, Christian Pulisic.
He began the lockdown by an embarrassing TikTok fail when he stepped on the ball — fortunately he was able to laugh it off and, more importantly, not hurt himself. Now, his freestyle skills are as glorious as his growing facial hair.
Ooh, that no-look!
Meanwhile, over at Callum’s house, the young Chelsea winger has been running his own freestyle challenges for his Instagram followers.
Here’s his latest showcase, making the ball do his bidding with customary ease — even if these skills are definitely of no use on the pitch!
Not to be left behind, here’s Billy G, our favorite son though not the only one, with the “Maradona 7”, which is a reference to (part of) Diego Maradona’s famous “Live is Life” warm-up: juggling the ball with both feet (1-2), both knees (3-4), both shoulders (5-6), and the head (7).
Billy adds the reverse order as well, just because it’s fun.
Billy’s Maradona 7 is just the latest in Chelsea and Hyundai’s “Home Advantage” series during the lockdown, which provide training exercises for kids staying at home.
This one’s on “close control”, while previous episodes have included lessons on “passing” and “turning” as well, all with Chelsea coaches and players participating and demonstrating.
Good stuff.