John Patrick Acquaviva

John Patrick Acquaviva (born September 9, 1993 in Maracaibo, Venezuela) is a former Venezuelan football freestyler.
Background
From the age of five, John started showing interest in football (soccer) when his father enrolled him in a local team for youngsters in La Azulita, Estado Mérida, Venezuela. While on the local team, he played as a mid-fielder and later on as a forward.
When John was 13, he was injured playing a friendly football match in his school; as a result, he suffered a partial tear in the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee. During his six months of healing, he discovered a new sport, known as freestyle football. From then, he was attracted to the sport, although few in Venezuela knew so at the time. After recuperating from his knee injury, John started practicing about 4-5 hours per day. He stopped playing football and concentrated on improving his touch and control of the ball. After 5 months of dedicated practice, he entered a national competition in Caracas, Venezuela, "The Red Bull Street Style Caracas 2008". Winning four rounds, Acquaviva went up against the previous year's champion before losing the final in a split 2-1 decision.
According to John, his injury motivated him to continue practicing freestyle, in spite of influence from others telling him to continue football and that freestyle was 'a waste of time'. In 2009, when he found that Red Bull had organized an online video competition, John entered the competition. Two weeks thereafter, Acquaviva was nominated the winner of the competition with the majority of votes. In August 2011, John participated in the Freestyle Football World Championship in Prague. Upon qualifying for the semifinals, he was defeated by later World Champion Szymon Skalski ("Szymo") at the championship. Currently, John is ranked among the top 30 freestyle footballers internationally.
In March 2012, John was named an 'Olympic Torch Bearer' upon been nominated as a Future Flame on the Coca Cola website, John was the first freestyler to ever be involved with the Olympics. On his mother's side, John is half British. He spent some of his childhood in Leyland, England and is currently living in England.
Portfolio
He has worked with company’s such as Coca Cola Powerade and DirecTV.
He is the only Venezuelan freestyler to have been sponsored by Adidas.
He was part of the Global Powerade South Africa 2010 campaign, which was filmed and produced by Sapient Corporation in December 2009 in Colombia and released worldwide in March 2010. John participated in the main football add, but only got a short secondary appearance in it; however, he was the main character of 2 freestyle football adds from the Powerade “Keep Playing” campaign.
He organized the first "World Freestyle Day" in Maracaibo/Venezuela; the event was sponsored by Adidas and took place the 4th of September.
He inaugurated the first Freestyle Football Academy in Venezuela "Academia Freestyle Futbol JPA".
He was an olympic torch bearer for the London 2012 Olympics, running with the Olympic flame on June 1 through Euxton, becoming the first football freestyler to ever be involved in the Olympics.
He organized a national freestyle football competition in Venezuela, "Copa JPA" in September 2012. The competition was hosted in Maracaibo.
Other work
John is a keen political activist, supporting the Venezuelan Opposition movement. [http://www.twitter.com/jpafs @JPAFS].
He is a published photographer in Latin America. Recently, he founded LCA Management, a Manchester-based publicity and marketing firm.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu