Daniel Farke’s first touch analysed: The toe position, the bench reaction, expert opinion – The Athletic 27/9/23

By Phil Hay

“The best thing about it? He did it in one take.”

Daniel Cappellaro is giving away a trade secret here. As creative and adept as freestyle footballers like him are, not everything they film comes off first time. Even the best of them endure days where the ball won’t stick, where it comes free of the string and flies off the boot, forcing the camera crew to reset.

“Some people get a bit touchy about this,” Cappellaro says, “but I’m not ashamed to say that sometimes what you’re trying needs a few shots. But what Farke’s done there, he’s absolutely killed it. It’s so good.”

🥶 Light work pic.twitter.com/kMh013B5BX

— Leeds United (@LUFC) September 23, 2023

Cappellaro is a street footballer, a futsal player, a coach and a freestyler who fits the mould of that industry: close to half a million followers on Instagram, commercial deals aplenty and a global profile gained through the blinding tricks he can do.

He’s halfway around the world, in the Australian city of Melbourne, and when I dial him up, I honestly wonder if he’ll have the first idea what I’m talking about. Daniel Farke. Leeds United. A 3-0 win over Watford and a glimpse of what the kids once called tekkers.

On the contrary, Cappellaro is all over it.

“Oh, I’ve seen it loads of times,” he says. “It was on Twitter this morning, it’s been on my Insta. The first thing I thought about when I saw it was this clip of Ronaldinho playing for Flamengo, where he brings the ball down on his toe and kills it dead in the same sort of way; just the most incredible touch. That’s what came to mind.”

Ronaldinho used to do that for fun, his party piece in pre-game warm-ups.

Whether Farke, Leeds’ manager, could repeat the trick he performed during their match on Saturday is another matter but his sublime piece of control in front of the dugouts — deftly bringing a high clearance to heel — was an exhibitionist’s sign-off at the end of a rout of Watford. Elland Road’s West Stand gave him a standing ovation. Even the fourth official, typically any game’s most impassive, non-committal individual, could not resist a little ‘Aw, bless’ smile.

The show-stopper allowed Farke to troll his squad afterwards. “If they would all have the quality of myself on the ball, it would be easy,” he said. “For (someone wearing) normal shoes, it was relatively OK.”

Impressed by Farke’s talent, The Athletic sought out a freestyle footballer of Cappellaro’s standing to ask the question: just how good a piece of skill was it? Would an accomplished freestyler look at it and think, ‘No great shakes. All in a day’s work’?, or was it worth a video which rapidly went viral?

“Look, if you’re asking me to do that, I’m asking you, ‘Is there wind? What kind of pitch are we on?’,” Cappellaro says. “It’s not easy. Sometimes with these things, it can be nine out of 10. Nine times, you do it no problem. The 10th time, it comes off the wrong part of the shoe or you don’t catch it properly. There’s always that degree.

“But I don’t think that was luck with Farke. There’s technical ability there. He’s done that to an exemplary measure.”

In all, the sequence captured by the Leeds United official Twitter account lasted for 11 seconds.

Here it is in all its glory; the moment when, 15 years after hanging up his boots, SC Lippstadt’s finest turned into prime Ronaldinho.

It’s added time at Elland Road and Leeds have just gone 3-0 up, finishing Watford off with a breakaway goal by Jaidon Anthony. These are the fading embers of a contest long since over, and Farke is in his usual pose: standing in his technical area, hands in pockets, dressed in black from head to toe.

Watford are having a little go regardless, to see if they can nick a consolation for the long trip home. Leeds are resisting and hoof a clearance away from their box, straight towards Farke.

His first glance towards it is impassive, like it’s nothing to do with him. The crowd aren’t ready for action either. It’s a split-second decision for the German: does he have a go, and try to be a hero? Or does he leave the ball alone and avoid the risk of it bouncing off his toes in pub-side amateur style?

Behind Farke, one Leeds supporter is about to commit the cardinal sin of leaving his seat just as he shouldn’t. Nature calling, or looking to beat the traffic? Either way, we’ll call him White Sleeves Man for the purposes of this piece (and please, if it was you who missed this, make yourself known and we’ll listen to your excuses).

Farke’s change of expression indicates that he’s starting to get interested. The ball’s on a good trajectory, it’s coming straight for him. Watford counterpart Valerien Ismael bullied him in a friendly in Germany many years ago, so maybe there’s an opportunity now to settle the score:

A split-second later, we’re on.

Farke’s hands leave his trouser pockets and he edges forward to get himself into position. Fourth official David Webb is going to miss this too if he’s not careful. Farke knows he’s asking a lot of himself. “There was lots of pressure because the ball was in the air for what felt like two minutes,” he said later, and the height of the clearance is part of what makes the takedown so Ronaldinho-esque.

“It’s so easy for it to go wrong,” Cappellaro says, “but however good a footballer he was when he was playing, the technique doesn’t leave you. I don’t know if he could do it again exactly like this, but even doing it once isn’t something just anyone can do.”

White Sleeves Man is out of his seat and distracting the people around him. Bad call.

Farke’s fully committed now and is starting to get ready for impact. But what’s the key to trapping a dropping ball like this? Is it following it ultra-closely with your eyes as it falls? Is it getting the body shape right? Is it all in the timing when ball and foot collide?

“One of the main parts is trying to see the ball landing on your big toe,” Cappellaro says. “Then, as you feel the ball hitting your foot, you try to pull it away to take the speed off the ball.” Farke’s eyes are perfectly fixed on their target and his poise and body shape are good. Webb’s starting to take a bit of interest too. If only White Sleeves Man would turn around:

The ball drops onto Farke’s right big toe…

…and like that, he kills it. Beautiful.

All that’s required from there is a sweep of his insole to nudge it around behind his left foot…

…and a cheeky smile to tell everyone that he knows what he’s just done.

In the crowd to the left of the dugouts, they’re open-mouthed:

Despite his best efforts to be emotionless, Webb can’t hold it back. First up, a little raise of the eyebrows…

…and then a little smile in the manner of a proud father who’s beaming inside but doesn’t want to be seen going over the top:

The fans in the West Stand are preparing a standing ovation and Farke gives them a glance and a shrug of the shoulders which says, ‘Yeah, I used to play a bit’. You see that? Nicht so schlecht.

The noise alerts White Sleeves Man, who is by now halfway up the steps to the exit and looks back in the hope of seeing what’s happened. No chance. He takes a glance, then duly departs to either the toilets or the car park. Them’s the breaks, son.

Social media exposure safely secured, Farke soaks up the applause and chips the ball to Watford’s Yaser Asprilla, quietly proud of himself. One person in the visiting dugout looks blown away by his magical touch…

…but as a whole, it’s not mirth all round:

At the time of writing, Farke’s moment of genius — “unbelievable hard”, as he might put it — has had just the three and a half million views on Twitter.

“It’s gone everywhere,” Cappellaro says. “When you got in touch, I’d already seen it loads of times.”

He jokes about signing Farke up for his next skills tutorial, and perhaps Farke has freestyle potential he never knew was there.

But that little touch on Saturday afternoon said something we’d all like to be able to say at the age of 46: still got it.