Twelve year old Mishal Aboulais from Malappuram is not just another kid who plays excellent football in Kerala. The Kerala boy has become a viral rage among the football community on Instagram and his skills have even been endorsed by Brazilian legend Neymar Jr.
Apart from being a soccer genuis, Mishal’s biggest claim to social media fame is his recreation of iconic football freekicks in the history of world soccer. The 12 year old has so far recreated iconic goals of Neymar, Messi, Maradona, Cristiano Ronaldo and others - all of which have gathered over 1 lakh views each. The 12-year-old already has a whopping 73, 000 followers on Instagram where he posts videos of him working out, displaying his football dribbling skills and photos from training.
One of his most watched videos was posted on June 15, where he is seen recreating football player Roberto Carlos’ iconic freekick from the 1997 Tournoi de France. Carlos’ freekick for Brazil in a 1-1 tie against France, is considered to be among the greatest in the history of football. And it was recreated to near perfection by Mishal.
Another video shows him recreating a freekick similar to Cristiano Ronaldo’s iconic goal during the 2008 Manchester United vs Portsmouth game. The 12 year old also does a trick popularised by Neymar called the 'rainbow flick' before kicking the ball into the net, and this was liked by the Brazilian footballer himself. Coutinho, Pogba, Maradona (who passed away recently), Marcelo and other players and their styles too have been featured on Mishal’s Instagram.
However, it was his Lionel Messi style pin-point left footed freekick which really catapulted him to fame with Instagram users recognising Mishal’s genius with the ball.
A student of Kattumunda Government UP School in Malappuram, the young boy has been training at Rainbow Academy in Mampad for a few years now. Football also runs in Mishal’s family as both his father Aboulais and brother Wajid play the game. Mishal says that it was his brother Wajid who encouraged him to play football and enrolled him at the academy.
Mishal also showcases his precision with the ball in other videos. In one of them, he places a ball and a net below it in front of the goal post and then kicks another ball in front of him. This ball rolls and hits the pole with the net, leading to the ball placed above to neatly drop into the net. Watch and be mindblown!