Fire Pop, The Slap, Cross Catch. These are all freestyle football tricks sportswoman Lia Lewis Gribius has aced in her six-year career. A quick search will show you that freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. Notable freestylers include Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho and I’m sure your dad will be able to wax lyrical about their phenomenal skills. But, as a part of the new generation of freestylers, Gribius is forming her own path, thanks to her background in dance.

“I combine gymnastics, dancing, and football together to create gymnastics tricks with the football,” she tells PS UK during an exclusive chat. “I do a handstand, advance the ball on my foot, and then I create different variations. Since freestyle football is simply creating tricks with a ball and everybody’s so different and there’s so much to do, which is why the sport, although small, is so wide and anyone can join in.”

Her abilities have led to six million followers on TikTok and Instagram combined and a Rimmel London ambassadorship, but football wasn’t always on the cards. “Prior to freestyle football, I did 18 years of dancing. As I was finishing my degree as a contemporary ballet dancer, I realised I wanted to do something different, something new. So I quit and decided to pick up a football.”

Although Gribius has been in the game for six years, her sport is still new and for her, involves constantly learning and training to discover new, artistic tricks. “I’ve always wanted the next challenge, the next thing. I’m not good at settling down, which is something I’ve kind of found out about myself, and freestyle football is the perfect outlet. I fell in love with the sport.”

A quick scroll through TikTok and Gribius’ incredible skills and talent becomes instantly noticeable, but it’s her signature trick that’s the new one to watch. “I accidentally created a trick that’s become my signature trick and have named it the Lewis Trick,” she reveals. “It was a complete accident, but I watched the video back, played it in slow motion, and then actually started learning the trick.”

From simply messing around with a football in her bedroom, to creating signature tricks and becoming the face of women’s freestyling in the UK, Gribius’ big dreams are coming true, and schemes like Go Henry’s Dream Big campaign are helping other young people to unlock their dreams too. “I am a believer in things falling into place and no dream is ever too big,” she shares. “If you are trying to achieve something that seems too big, work hard but most importantly, enjoy it. Your passion is the biggest, the most important piece of the puzzle.”

This year, the World Freestyle Football Championship will take place in Turin, Italy between 8 and 14 November, marking only one of the two championships that take place in the sport, so Gribius has big dreams for her growing sport. “I’d love to see freestyle football at the Olympics,” she tells us. “The tricky part with freestyle is because it’s such a unique sport and everyone’s so different and so unique that it’s hard to have a judging criteria, but I think it would be absolutely amazing to see my sport at Olympic level.”

And if you’d like to get involved with freestyle football, Gribius’ advice is stellar. “Get a football, find a space and start messing around with the ball,” she says. “There’s a lot of tutorials online and a lot of beginner tricks that you can start learning. So if you like to push yourself and if you like to learn new things, then you’ll get that 100% from freestyle football. Once you’ve learned the beginner tricks, you can start developing your own style. Just have fun with it and do it because you love it and you enjoy it.”

Lauren Gordon is the editorial coordinator at PS UK, where she creates lifestyle and identity content. Lauren has a degree in journalism from University of the Arts London and previously worked as a showbiz and TV reporter at The Mirror US. Lauren specialises in pop culture, hair and beauty, focusing on trends, sharing in-depth tutorials, and highlighting hidden gems in the beauty industry.