Bas van Velzen’s Facebook page describes him as “a youtube who take free kicks in a weird way.” Now, he’s from the Netherlands, so you’ll have to excuse his poor English, as hilarious as “a youtube” might be. Beyond all of that is the latter half of the sentence: his assertion that he takes free kicks “in a weird way.” Now, we can’t be sure if he is being genuine, or genuinely sarcastic, because his free kicks are anything but weird. As a matter of fact, they’re absolutely amazing.
We are going to go so far as to say that he is the best amateur free kick taker we have ever seen. And before you go storming off in a could of indignation, you should know that Liverpool F.C. agree. That’s right, the Liverpool F.C. That’s why they invited him to one of their training sessions to give the club’s players a “Master Class.” And here we were, thinking that that was just a figure of speech.
While it doesn’t seem like Mario Balotelli and Co. need much help — aside from Balo’s first shot, maybe — Bas sure showed them how it’s done. Has has to be the most specialized soccer talent outside of freestyle football; he’s world-class at free kicks, and probably supremely average at everything else.
It’s a shame that there is no free kick taker equivalent of baseball’s designated hitter in soccer. Maybe one or two BAs free kicks would have been the difference between getting 3rd and winning it all for the Netherlands at Brazil 2014.
