This freestyler is on the ball

Growing up a shy young boy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, street performer and international football freestyle superstar Victor Rubilar never thought of himself as a performance artist and shied away from being in the spotlight until high school where he learnt to do magic.

Now the 38-year-old busker who performs unimaginable tricks with soccer balls, including juggling five at a time, is a five-time Guinness World Record holder and tours at least 15 countries a year.

“If I were a superhero my superpower would be to sleep anywhere,” Rubilar quipped.

Entertaining audiences through his skills with soccer balls along with a few other tricks at the Village Green in Makhanda, Rubilar said he always wanted to visit SA to see penguins.

“I arrived a week earlier and went to Cape Town for a day to surf and go on a safari but I really wanted to come to SA to see the penguins,” Rubilar said.

Having already toured 51 countries, Rubilar holds 18 international awards for his spectacular displays of human agility.

“It is all about my two greatest loves – football and girls, and it is all about having fun at the end of the day,” Rubilar said.

Starting off small with performing magic tricks as a struggling magician, Rubilar said he always wanted to do something different.

“These were the days before YouTube so what you see is all self taught.

“It is not actually doing tricks – it’s my passion.”

Performing in cabarets as well, Rubilar said he loved doing street performance because he found it to be more real.

“If [the audience] doesn’t like it they can leave,” the performer said.

Having visited nearly 300 cities and towns across the globe, Rubilar said apart from SA, which he had visited once before, he also loved Canada but in both cases it was because of the people and not the places.

“The audience is great and people really like to get involved in the show which is the most difficult thing to do,” he said.

Rubilar, who was in the middle of a world tour, said the highlights of his 15-year career included meeting and spending time with the likes of soccer legends Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Pele.

Now based in Barcelona, Spain, Rubilar studied dance, theatre and juggling among other disciplines at the school of contemporary arts at Cirkus Cirkor, a Swedish circus company based in Sweden.

● Catch Rubilar at the Village Green between 9am and 6pm daily.