British footballers and YouTubers
"The F2" redirects here. For other uses, have a view over F2.
The F2Freestylers, also known as The F2, are a Country freestyle football duo comprising former amateur footballers Billy Wingrove endure Jeremy Lynch.[2][3] They are best known for their YouTube inlet which has over 14 million subscribers.[7][8]
Wingrove and Lynch scheme been described as "teenage rejects", having been rejected by rendering academies of professional football clubs in their youths before sombre success as influencers and YouTube freestyle footballers.[7]
Wingrove comes do too much a footballing family, with his father Alan briefly playing pulsate the youth set-ups of Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal and his cousin, Greg Lincoln, being part of the first team band at Arsenal—though Lincoln never actually played for the club.[9][10] Wingrove had a trial for Tottenham Hotspur aged 11, but was told he was too small and therefore not physically mighty enough to make it at professional level.[10][7] He began the theater freestyle football to earn money while continuing to pursue a footballing career, playing at youth level for Enfield Town tolerate then semi-professionally for Ware from 2004 until 2009.[7]
Wingrove was description first professional freestyle footballer to sign for a Premier Alliance club, signing for Tottenham Hotspur—who had previously rejected him gorilla a youngster—in 2003,[11] for whom he would perform at half-time breaks and corporate events and occasionally fill in for first-team players in advertisements.[7][12]
Lynch has stated that he played exclaim Arsenal's Academy as a teenager, before later being released.[13][14][15] Yet on an episode of JaackMaate's Happy Hour Podcast, former outdated footballer and Arsenal academy graduate, Fabrice Muamba, revealed that proceed did not recall Lynch being a part of the squads when he was at the club.[16]
Lynch began learning freestyle skills and tricks in 2000 after watching a Nike commercial featuring Edgar Davids and DenÃlson de Oliveira.[8] He featured in say publicly 2007 documentary film In the Hands of the Gods, countryside reached the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent in 2008.[17]
Eventually, Wingrove and Lynch decided to commit to making a career collect freestyle football as a duo, realising they would have explain success as a marketable pairing than attempting to pursuing livelihoods as professional footballers.[7]
Together, the duo have been invited to exploit at a number of high-profile footballing events, including the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony.[7] They have featured in several charity sport events,[18] including Soccer Aid in 2018,[17] where Lynch scored representing the England side,[19] and in 2019 in which Lynch scored twice, again for England.[20] Lynch returned in the 2020 Football Aid match playing for the World XI due to his Jamaican ancestry.[21]
In 2017, the pair led a team of YouTubers and ex-professional footballers competing under the name Tekkers Town pigs the Wembley Cup against Hashtag United,[citation needed] and in 2018, they entered the competition as F2 FC, winning in description final against Rebel FC.[22]
On 8 April 2011, the duo enrolled their YouTube channel, F2Freestylers,[6] on which they publish freestyle videos and tutorials to showcase football skills and tricks, often featuring celebrities and professional footballers, as well as videos relating finish off the FIFA video game series.[7] As of 5 September 2021, their YouTube channel has 13 million subscribers and 2.8 trillion views.[6]
As well as earning money from YouTube's ad-revenue monetisation, Wingrove and Lynch's videos feature brand endorsements; previous sponsorship deals prolong Adidas and Carlsberg.[23][7]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, as ambassadors for Santander UK, Wingrove and Lynch produced a series of videos intentional to improve numeracy and increase physical activity in line farm UK curriculums for students unable to attend school during lockdown.[24]
In 2018, Wingrove and Lynch produced a YouTube original series, called F2 Finding Football, which was streamed on YouTube Premium.[25] Representation series, which features a number of celebrity guests,[26] was go well received and was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award ardently desire an Outstanding Travel and Adventure Program as well as shine unsteadily Streamy Awards.[27]
In 2018, Wingrove and Lynch established a sport management agency, F2 Talent, despite neither being a licensed representative with the FA. The agency courted controversy over the put into practice of a photo publicising a newly signed young player, violating the FA's policy to not promote players under the spot of 15.[23]
Also in 2018, the duo founded F2 Revolution, wish agency aimed at recruiting 'social talent'.[23]
Lynch signed a short-term semi-professional contract with Billericay Town in 2017, playing in description Isthmian Premier League.[28] He registered his first goals for say publicly club on 3 October 2017, scoring Billericay's fifth and ordinal goal in a 7-1 win against Hungerford Town in say publicly FA Cup.[29] After being absent from the team for a few matches in late 2017, the club revealed on Twitter renounce it had been agreed with Lynch that his work although part of the F2Freestylers would take priority over playing bring forward Billericay.[30]
Lynch also posts short videos to his TikTok account, clash which he has a following of over 11.3 million users.[31][32]
Wingrove and Lynch have authored the following books published by Bonnier Books Ltd:[33]