Soufiane Touzani (born 27 October 1986) is a Dutch-Moroccan

freestyle football Freestyle football is the art of juggling a football using any part of the body, excluding the elbows to the hands. It combines football tricks, dance, acrobatics and music to entertain onlookers and compete with opponents. The official governin ...

er and

television host A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for people who garner ...

from

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. In 2005, he uploaded a video on YouTube and this became an international success with millions of views. The video also caught the attention of

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

(EA Games) and they asked him to perform the tricks for the PlayStation game Fifa Street. Famous football players like

Thierry Henry Thierry Daniel Henry (born 17 August 1977) is a French professional football coach, pundit, and former player who is an assistant coach for the Belgium national team. Considered one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best players ...

and

Robin van Persie Robin van Persie (; born 6 August 1983) is a Dutch football coach and former professional footballer who played as a striker. Regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation, Van Persie was known for his excellent technique and ball co ...

watched his videos.

Neymar Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior (born 5 February 1992), known as Neymar, is a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain F.C., Paris Sain ...

even performed some of his tricks: Touzani Around the World and a trick called “New Shit”. His popularity rose and because of that he received invitations from several countries to show his tricks. He performed worldwide and the pinnacle was a performance with

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deployed as a winger. Wide ...

in a full

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in ...

Stadium.

Television

Besides playing football Soufiane also has another passion, presenting. The

TROS Tros or TROS may refer to: * 18281 Tros, an asteroid * Transformer read-only storage, a type of read-only memory * TROS, a Dutch broadcasting union, originally an acronym for Televisie Radio Omroep Stichting * Tros (mythology), a figure in Greek ...

, which is a big television network in the Netherlands, approached him to present the program Z@ppsport. This is a program on national television for children.

Touzani School

In 2011 Soufiane founded his own football school for children in Rotterdam. It’s called Touzani School. Boys and girls learn everything there is to know about football and media.

Ambassador

Soufiane Touzani is the ambassador of the Johan Cruyff Foundation. Together they try to stimulate sports among children on the Cruyff Courts. Soufiane Touzani is also the ambassador of the city Rotterdam. By conducting several clinics and his cooperation with topsport events, Soufiane delivers his contribution to the development of the topsports climate in Rotterdam.

Highlights

Fifastreet

Right after a wave of popularity of his First Freestyle video, Soufiane was asked by

to do the motion capture movements for the game

FIFA Street ''FIFA'', also known as ''FIFA Football'' and to be rebranded as ''EA Sports FC'' from 2023, is a series of association football video games developed and released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. As of 2011, the ''FIFA'' fr ...

. In the second part of FIFA Street he got his own character in the game.

Stade de France

One of the First highlights of Soufiane’s career was a performance during the French Cup final in the

Stade de France The Stade de France (, ) is the national stadium of France, located just north of Paris in the commune of Saint-Denis. Its seating capacity of 80,698 makes it the sixth-largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is used by the France national foot ...

. He performed in front of 80.000 spectators.

Ronaldinho

After a first performance at

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons ...

, Soufiane was asked for a second time. This time at the presentation of acclaimed player Ronaldinho. Soufiane got the chance to perform together with Ronaldinho.

Robin van Persie 3VS3

Every year the

Tournament takes place. In 2013 the tournament became a special edition. Feyenoord player

Tonny Vilhena Tonny Emílio Trindade de Vilhena (; ; born 3 January 1995), known as Tonny Vilhena, is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Salernitana, on loan from Espanyol. He has represented the Netherlands national t ...

and Soufiane Touzani played a match of 3 versus 3 with none other than Robin van Persie. Three lucky kids played the game of a lifetime. It resulted in one of the most spectacular football videos on YouTube in 2013

Coronation of the King

Soufiane was given the honour of performing at the coronation of the new King of the Netherlands. After the inauguration in the church, the King and his family went on a boat tour. During this tour Soufiane showed the most spectacular tricks for the King, his Queen and the three princesses.

Setback

He dreamed of becoming a professional football player. But when he was sixteen years old, it turned out he had a deviation to his back. This scoliosis was the reason for putting an iron pin of 30 centimeters in his back. As a result he was only allowed to play keepy-uppy. He found out that he had some exceptional skills, while doing this.

External links

Touzani Productions

Touzani Foundation
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Touzani, Soufiane 1986 births Living people Dutch footballers Footballers from Rotterdam Freestyle footballers Street football players Association footballers not categorized by position