Around the world with a football
“We have been shooting at different locations with different people. The idea is to take football to the people and attract them towards the sport,” he says. A few days back, the World Freestyle Champion, hustled a couple of kids in Mexico, dressed as an old man. They didn’t know what they were dealing with, until he frustrated them with his amazing control on the ball. Recently, Garnier also shot a video in China, interacting with people on the street. He says that freestyle brings lot of aspects together — music, training, socialising and fitness — reason why he always seems to be interacting with strangers, showing them his tricks. “One of the ways to develop freestyle football is to do these little things. People like Neymar, Maradona or Ronaldinho so much because they do these tricks on the pitch. This is my way to contribute to freestyle. I travel extensively throughout the year, and everywhere, I make people smile with my tricks. I want to touch people, and hope that some of them start doing it as well,” he confides.

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Freestyle as a saviour
Before Garnier became a freestyle footballer, he was a first division football player in France, keen to enter professional football. But an injury kept him out. Garnier wasn’t ready to give up. So, he combined his love for football and break dance, and set to impress people on the stage. “It was a part of life, when you don’t know what you are doing. Freestyle helped me forget the mistakes. It helped me come back. I started training with people, learning new tricks. And in 2008, I became the first Red Bull Street Style Champion,” he shares.