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Video clip wins £28,000 car
Record-breaking football freestyler John Farnworth has scored a winner – with a video shot in his back garden.
The 22-year-old from Longridge won a 28,000 Nissan Navara when he entered a competition run by the cult show Soccer AM.
The 30-second clip, featuring some of his best moves, wowed judges so much he landed first prize.
John only entered after he received an e-mail from a friend telling him to go for it. He said: "It was one of those things where I went out into the garden with my camcorder, filmed it and sent it off and then forgot about it.
"When somebody rang me to say I had won I thought it was a wind-up, but the more I think about it, every freestyler in the UK entered, so to win is a great achievement."
The competition, organised by Sky TV, called for people to send in clips of themselves performing a sports skill that gets them respect.
Freestyle is the art of performing tricks with a football while keeping it in the air. John holds the world record for the most "around the worlds" – passing the foot completely around the ball without letting it touch the ground – in one minute.
He has also worked with Mitre to design a new ball which will help others emulate his tricks.
He added: "It's the first time I have won a competition where it hasn't relied on me performing live.
"When my friend finds out I have won he'll probably want me to let him drive around in the prize – but he's down in London, so there's not much chance of that."
John showed great promise as a footballer when he was a boy and played for Preston Town and Preston College as well as having trials at Preston North End.
But because he was small for his age he was often overlooked and made substitute for the teams, despite coaches recognising that he was the most skilful player.
He turned freestyle after reading about Brazilian-style coaching.
Since then he has performed professionally around the world and, in December 2006, was crowned the World Freestyle champion in Amsterdam.
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 22 February 2012
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