Blink nets YouTube football fans F2 Freestylers

Blink Publishing has acquired The F2 World of Football from YouTube "football sensations", The F2 Freestylers.

Blink editor Joel Simons and Matt Phillips, publishing director at Blink Sports, acquired world rights in all languages from 10Ten Talent Ltd – the exclusive agents of The F2 Freestylers, in collaboration with literary agent MTC (UK) Ltd.

Through their YouTube channel, The F2 Freestylers – Billy Wingrove and Jeremy Lynch – hang out with some of the "greatest names to have ever played the game", and present football entertainment, tutorials and banter to subscribers and social media followers on a daily basis.  

The F2 Freestylers have 2.9m Instagram followers, 4.4m subscribers, 2.7m likes on Facebook and 223k followers on Twitter.

According to the publisher, The F2 Freestylers have "travelled the world and wowed fans with their audacious brand of football trickery and tek-nique, performed at the FIFA Ballon d’Or and worked with the likes of Messi, Neymar, Pele and Ronaldo, putting their ‘tekkers’ to the test".

In the book, Lynch and Wingrove tell the “amazing story" of how they went from Premier League academy players as teenagers to global YouTube stars, and reveal what it’s really like to rub shoulders with the most decorated players in the game. The book also includes an “exciting” step-by-step guide to becoming a true football superstar and an accompanying app brings their skills to life.

Simons said: “With illustrations, photography and some of the sickest tricks in the game, this is the first book you should pick up if you want skills like Messi, a touch like Hazard and footwork like Ronaldo, from two of football’s most exciting new stars.”

Lynch said: “After spending many years mastering all the different football techniques – shooting, passing, freestyle, ball control, tricks, finishing, dribbling, skills, accuracy – this is the result”.

Wingrove said: “We want to inspire every single person that loves and plays football, no matter at what level. You can become as good as you want to be by simply working hard and practicing, and that applies to all walks of life. We are extremely excited to be working with Blink to create something truly special for the F2 Family and can’t wait for you all to see the finished version”.

The book also comes with an exclusive app with unseen footage of The F2 Freestylers performing brand new skills, as well as familiar classics, giving detailed instructions on how to pull off some of the "toughest tricks" in football.