Bicycle kick: The origin and evolution of this popular football shot
Picture this: You are playing at the interschool football finals and it’s only five minutes to the final whistle when the score of your team and the opponent’s is tied at 1-1. You are standing near the goalpost and the ball comes right at you. But before you can manage to kick it inside the goalpost, you realise that the pass is higher than you imagined and slightly over your head. Without even thinking twice, you instinctively arch your back, and lean your body backwards into the air. Your legs form a scissor-like motion and before you realise your right leg swings upwards, comes in contact with the ball, and you kick it back over your head, past the keeper, into the corner of the goal post. And that crowd gives you a standing ovation screaming, “Goal!” While the entire team is busy celebrating the winning goal, you realise you have fulfilled your life-long dream of perfecting a bicycle kick. Yes, that’s what this football shot is called. Not many football players master the art of bicycle kick, a shot that’s a unique combination of grace, beauty and athletic prowess. Here are things that you didn’t know about this dream shot.
The birth story
In the game of football, no move comes in comparison with the bicycle kick, firstly because it’s extremely rare and also because it’s quite tough. Regardless, there are a number of legends surrounding the origin story of bicycle kick.
According to some experts, the bicycle kick was born somewhere in South America, especially in the Brazil, Chile and Peru belt, during the era when football tactics and skills were being innovated. This was the early 19th century, when British immigrants drawn by the continent’s promising economic prospects introduced football, in exchange for importing coffee from Brazil, hide and meat from Argentina and guano from Peru.
Now, once the South Americans got the hang of the sport, unlike the Europeans who deemed it solely as an entertainment, they decided to focus on its technical sides. This is when various popular football moves such as the dribble, bending free kicks were born, alongside the most unique and special shot, the bicycle kick.
Okay, but who came up with the idea and when? Well, the credit can be attributed to Ramon Unzaga, a Chile-based soccer player of Spanish origin. In 1914, he came across a bunch of Afro-Peruvian seaport workers during a trip to Chile’s famous seaport called Talcahuano. He saw the seaport workers performing the move that is similar to the modern-day bicycle kick. They have been using this shot since 1892 in soccer matches against British sailors and railroad employees, primarily in Peru’s chief port Callao. But back then, it wasn’t known as bicycle kick. The name was ‘tiro de chalaca’ or Callao strike (inspired by the location). Unzaga mastered this kick and improvised on it.
Evolution of bicycle kick
In case you were wondering how the world got introduced to the bicycle kick, that credit too goes to Unzaga and his fellow Chilean defender Francisco Gatica during the first few editions of the South American Championships in the 1920s.
Another Chilean forward David Arellano is also recognised as a pioneer of the bicycle kick. He performed it during the 1927 tour of Spain. Even legendary Brazilian striker Leonidas is credited to have popularised the move in 1932.
However, the turning point came when Brazilian forward Pele and Argentine midfielder Diego Maradona competed to rekindle the bicycle kick, thus giving it the ultimate global acclaim towards late 20th century.
Bicycle kick is impossible to defend
Not many know, but bicycle kick is not just a special football move, it is also nearly impossible to stop. Why? Turns out the answer lies in physics. When the player’s body is high above the ground surface and is angled upward, the kicking leg always has a greater distance than normal to travel, before coming in contact with the ball. Okay, what does this really mean? It means that this higher than usual distance gives the leg room to gain momentum, all the while enhancing its angular velocity. The result if of course a forceful kick that sends the ball towards the goal post, almost five times quicker than normal. So, maybe, only one in a hundred goalkeeper with exceptional reflexes may be fast enough to be able to react instantly to a bicycle kick and block it. But that is also a rare feat.