Football freestyler Oliver Hayes will be performing at London Road on Saturday.
Ahead of kick-off at London Road on Saturday, football freestyler Oliver Hayes will be entertaining supporters inside and outside of the stadium.
On the 1st of July 1993, Oliver Hayes was born in a small town in England called Macclesfield. Like most young boys, Oli was obsessed with football and was rarely seen without a ball at his feet. Playing for various teams and practicing constantly, he developed extremely good technical skills on the ball and was performing abnormal amounts of kick ups for his age.
In 2006, commercials for the big tournaments of that year were everywhere and Oli took a great interest to them. Ronaldinho was the man at the time and Oli was instantly inspired by his style of play and the way he expressed himself with a football. From that moment, Oli took himself out of all aspects of competitive football to concentrate on what is now known as football freestyle.
On a daily basis, Oli would search online, finding new moves to practice. He glued himself to the garden, where he wouldn't return from until he mastered the tricks he was working on. Eventually he picked up everything he had seen and then he moved on to developing his own tricks and combinations.
Aswell as football, Oli was into all things creative. YouTube was relatively new at the time and it helped by showing him moves he may never have seen but aswell as that, it gave him a platform to release his own content. Starting off on mobile phones, Oli would film his tricks, edit them on his computer and release videos online via social media websites.
He gained interest all over and turned his hobby into a career, receiving bookings from clients worldwide. His talent and cheeky youthful personality have taken him to countries such as France, Syria and Antigua, although the highlight of his career is more close to home.
In 2011, Oli performed at the Etihad Stadium for his beloved Manchester City. This was without a doubt the most exciting show for Oli as he grew up a City fan from watching them at Maine Road. Everton were the opponents on the day and Oli showed off his skills before the game in the City Square before being introduced to the 40,000+ fans, where he performed as the half time entertainment.
Other achievements feature Oli performing at parties for Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole, starring in TV adverts for MOTD Magazine, body doubling Cesc Fabregas, live shows alongside Tinie Tempah and Wretch 32 and aswell as that, he was invited to represent N-Dubz in the celebrity soccer sixes tournament, where he played against stars such as Tinchy Stryder, Olly Murs and dance crew Flawless.
Away from freestyle, Oli is into all self expressive art forms. Film making, photography, graphic and web design, art, fashion, music, travel, journalism and sport are all interests of his. Oli has never been one to waste his talent and he used his visual production skills wisely, collaborating with musicians, models and more, creating content for them, through a skill that Oli picked up with a camera phone before evolving into much higher quality equipment, which he uses now.
From the past to the future, Oli aspires to inspire by sharing his knowledge and entertaining people, whether it be in person or online but most importantly Oli will always continue striving for greatness with all of his talent, doing so through hard work and dedication.