Meet Daniel Azzam of InnovationLA in Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Azzam.

Daniel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been freestyling for as long as I can remember. I was just a child when I got my first soccer ball. I inherited my love for the game from my father, who’s home court in Syria was nothing more than a makeshift dirt road with trash bins as goals and potholes as out-of-bounds. I wasn’t always a pro athlete – I was just a seven-year-old boy juggling a soccer ball with his older brother and dad. Before I knew it, the ball took me where very few had gone before – into the innovative world of freestyle soccer. To me, freestyle soccer is more than my sport – it’s my art. Expressing myself to the world through creativity with a soccer ball is my way of life.

I demanded greatness of myself, becoming the youngest to win 1st Place in Challenge at the USA National Freestyle Soccer Championship in Venice Beach, California. The Los Angeles freestyle community became our nation’s home of freestyle soccer. Right here in LA, I was training among the legends, the godfathers of our sport, and, most importantly, the future Founders of InnovationLA.

Gathering together the best freestylers in Los Angeles, I co-founded InnovationLA, a team of professional freestyler soccer athletes dedicated to the mastery of artistic style with the soccer ball. Our original crew and Founders were Peter Azzam, Alexander Mendoza, Umar Dalati, Caitlyn Schrepfer, and myself. Words cannot describe the interconnectedness woven between our team. We were brothers and sisters no matter what. We learned together, inspired each other, and set out to spread the beauty of our sport to the corners of the earth together. Our team members were already doing so many inspiring things in our industry. My vision was simply to bring all that creative energy together in a synergistic harmony to produce the greatest art the soccer world had ever seen.

Has it been a smooth road?
The journey of a freestyler is one that is full of character-building moments but no regrets. Sure it’s not easy dedicating yourself to a craft that nobody has ever heard of. Sure it’s not easy treading into the unknown as we created a freestyle organization from scratch. But without a doubt, I would do choose the same path over and over again, and I know every member of InnovationLA would do the same.

For all of us in the arts, we know how difficult it is to create a career out of doing what you love, and for many of us this started out as simply a hobby. I put my life into this sport, and it has given me back so much more – creativity, community, and a greater purpose. Most importantly, I could never have made it this far in freestyle soccer without my teammates by my side at every step of the way. I hope that my journey paves the way for the future freestylers of our nation so that they can learn from my struggles, follow in my successes, and redefine the way we imagine what humans are capable of with a soccer ball.

Please tell us about InnovationLA.
InnovationLA freestylers are more than just soccer players. We are artists, entertainers, athletes, and teachers. My vision for the organization is to inspire positivity around the globe by bringing the soccer world’s wildest dreams to life in a creative masterpiece of tricks with the ball.

We have been fortunate enough to perform at hundreds of events nationwide on the big stage, from showcases at pro soccer games to USA tours. We have been featured as soccer stars in dozens of productions, myself being in 7 commercials for events like the FIFA World Cup, one music video with DJ Marshmello, and 1 TV show. Our Founders have won international championship titles on multiple stages, including 1st in the USA, 3rd best male in North America, and 2nd best female in the world. Just as I learned freestyle from the community, my dream is to give back by teaching kids around the world my art. My co-founders and I have taught children the beauty of freestyle soccer at schools throughout the inner city of LA, across the states, and even on global mission trips in Central America.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Throughout the history of the freestyle soccer movement, the scene has evolved over time, but some things never change. Once a freestyler, always a freestyler. We are the LA freestyle soccer community, and it is up to us to write the future how we want it to be. This is the message for the future of our sport that I capture in my new book that I am writing with my brother, Peter Azzam, titled The Story – The Roots of the Los Angeles Freestyle Soccer Community.

I have been a part of many discussions with the leading influencers in freestyle soccer about whether we should keep our sport underground or make it more mainstream as an Olympic sport. I think the natural progression is to move towards making freestyle soccer available to the general public as a televised sport, with a national league of athletes who can freestyle for a living. However, the beauty of keeping the sport underground is that it allows us to paint our own canvases without limitations to our creative energy.

From what I have seen, as freestyle soccer spread to more and more countries with unique cultures and styles, the sport shifted from all of us simply doing what we call “air moves” to now every freestyler creating his or her own style. Personally, I believe that the more I can spread freestyle to the world, the greater the opportunities to learn from each other and innovate with no limits. I like to think that someday soon, I could walk down the streets of Los Angeles and see kids training together in freestyle soccer circles, playing with the beat of the music, and wearing jerseys of our sports’ founding fathers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.danielazzam.com
• Email: azzamd@uci.edu
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danielazzamfreestyle/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InnovationLA

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