This year's best U17 freestyler comes from Poland

The winner of the second edition of the FC Bayern Freestyle Tournament is called Michal. He is 16 years old and from near Katowice, Poland. He succeeded in winning over the Bayern Instagram community of over 26 million followers with his freestyle tricks and was chosen by them as the new champion.

The tournament has its origins in the annual FC Bayern Youth Cup, which is the largest and also oldest youth football tournament organised by a club in the world. Since it could not take place last year due to the pandemic, Germany’s record champions launched a digital alternative last summer. The tournament therefore went online and was played on the club’s global Instagram channel. The winner of the first digital edition was Sidike from Togo. The young man’s prize is a trip to London and tickets for the final of Euro 2020 at Wembley Stadium. If this isn’t possible due to the coronavirus measures in place, Sidike will receive an alternative prize.

In the first edition, the participants were selected from the FC Bayern Youth Cup national teams. For the second, any boy or girl between the age of 14 and 17 around the world could apply.

FC Bayern U17 Freestyle Tournament 2021

From 23 to 31 March, the winner of this year’s tournament was determined in 15 match-ups. Sixteen talented freestyle footballers from 14 countries (USA, Mexico, Brazil, China, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, England, France, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Nigeria, Ivory Coast) took part. Two girls took part for the first time as representatives for Germany and Poland. The more than 26 million FCB followers could vote for each match-up over 24 hours. The player with the most votes at the end advanced to the next round. In total, more than a million votes were cast.