Cesc Fabregas is present, but is he really there?3 min read

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Meet Cesc Fabregas, a professional footballer from Spain who was recently called upon to judge a football freestyle tournament. He couldn’t make it to the venue, but that was in no way going to prevent him going. Fabregas chatted with the judges and shared his expertise, all while attending the event as a hologram! It’s officially future territory. Thanks to Covid19, those digital versions of people that you see in spy movies have leapt right out of the screen!

Owliver’s Obscure Observation: This isn’t the first time a hologram has made international news. Kanye West, the famous rapper gifted his wife a hologram of her father who passed away in 2003! Kanye West even took the opportunity to make his father-in-law’s hologram call him a genius! That,s pretty genius, wouldn’t you say?

So what is freestyle football anyway?

Rather than play traditional football in teams, these sportspeople display their skills individually by performing various tricks with the football. It requires so much technique and discipline that some even call it a form of art!

Fabregas judged the ‘Red Bull Street Style World Championship’ that was held online for the first time ever. He is known around the world for his skills on the football field but said that some of the tricks he saw were beyond his reach! He was awe-struck by these players’ cool composure. With just thirty seconds to show off their tricks, each player is under mind-boggling amounts of pressure. They’ve got to knock the judges’ socks off (hologram judges too!), and a single mistake could cost them the competition.

Girl power

Both men and women competed in this championship, and Fabregas was most inspired by the women. He believes that women and men are truly equal in both their mental and physical abilities.

“To be honest, nowadays we are so 50/50 in terms of physicality and brain-wise.” 

Cesc Fabregas: cnn

Moreover, he said that women are as inspired as men to win. They put up as much of a fight if not more, and finally, the world can see it! Fabregas and his co-judges crowned both a female and male champion. Mélody Donchet and Erlend Fagerli claimed the overall prize for the women’s and men’s categories.

Owliver’s Obscure Observation: Esports India announced its first-ever Online National Freestyle Football Championship in 2020! The competition will be held at a National Level, and footballers from across the country will display their skills. The judges and experts include Archis Patil, India’s top football freestyler, and Monish Nikam, who holds a Guinness world record for freestyle football. Will they attend as holograms? Who knows?

With Excerpts From: Redbullstreetstyle.com, Business World, CNN

Watch the entire world championship here:

Think with Owliver:
What makes a person a human being?
Is being present digitally enough to make you feel like a person is with you?
If you could meet someone every day as a hologram or only meet them occasionally in person, what would you choose?