When Scarborough's 17-year-old Jose Pena comes home from school, he doesn't hop on the Xbox or hang out with friends. Instead, he practices his freestyle soccer skills for about three hours.
In November, that hard work will pay off when Pena travels to Brazil to represent Canada in the Red Bull Street Style World Final. Pena beat out 15 other freestyle soccer finalists from across the country to clinch first place at the Canadian Red Bull Street Style challenge in Toronto Sunday.
A panel of three judges, including Toronto FC's Rohan Ricketts, voted Pena, 17, as the best freestyler.
"His (ball) control was unbelievable in the final," Ricketts told CP24.COM, adding that the runner up, Pablo Villalta, put in an impressive performance.
Soccer freestylers are people who perform gravity-defying tricks with a soccer ball, rolling it around different parts of their body or appearing to bounce the ball on themselves with ease.
After surviving various elimination stages, Pena faced Vancouver's Villalta for the title in what had been an exciting two-hour competition at the Great Hall on Queen Street West.
Pena creatively juggled, bounced and rolled the ball with his body, entertaining the crowd and impressing judges with graceful ball control and precise trickery.
The Scarborough teen says he's been freestyling for just less than two years, but says he was inspired to take up freestyling after a friend retired from the sport.
"I'm a quick learner," says Pena. "All I did was practice every day after school. I just trained for like three hours."
"I see all these people in Europe that are so amazing, right, and I just want to get to their level and show people that people can do (freestyle soccer) in Canada too."
Other judges included ET Canada's Rick Campanelli and The Score's Footy Show host James Sharman.
The participants earned their chance to compete for the final Canadian spot through regional qualifiers held in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.
Four freestylers from Montreal, three from Vancouver and eight from Toronto made the cut to appear in Sunday's national final.
Pena advances to the Red Bull Street Style World Final, which takes place in Sao Paolo, Brazil on Nov. 18 inside the Pacaembu Stadium. It's the home of the Corinthians soccer club and was also used for matches in the 1950 World Cup.
