Bengaluru: McDowell’s Celebration, one of the top selling brands from United Spirits, is launching the biggest freestyle football extravaganza in India under the McDowell’s Freestyle Friendzy banner. An aggressive format of football that involves the expression of dribbling and other jugglery skills, McDowell’s Freestyle Friendzy will kick off from November 27, 2009, at a never before scale in 21 cities across India.

The event will bring the world’s top 6 freestylers together for the first time in India. The celebrity freestylers include Peter Kovacs -top Hungarian freestyler ,Nam The Man-the Irish freestyle icon, Palle -the freestyle champion from Sweden and one of the most influential patrons of this format, Daniel Rooseboom -the Dutch No 1, Nori-top freestyler from Japan and Jesus Gomez Moreno-the Spanish champion and Freestyle Fashion ambassador. The international freestylers will engage and interact with the local freestylers across India, with the finale to be held in Kolkata on December 18, 2009. The final winner will receive a free ticket to one of the most sought after league matches in London and other attractive prizes.

“McDowell’s Celebration is the proud pioneer of dynamic football formats in India. Freestyle Football is catching up as a rage amongst football aficionados across the world. With an over 10 year old partnership with India’s premier football club- Mohun Bagan, McDowell’s Celebration has left no stone unturned to promote football in India. McDowell’s Freestyle Friendzy is a natural outcome of this pursuit. We have yet again taken the lead to bring this innovative precursor to routine football to thousands of football fans in India. Never before has the country witnessed this massive showcasing of international football talent and hunt for Indian amateur freestylers. ” said Mathew Xavier, Business Head, United Spirits Limited. McDowell’s Celebration will soon launch India’s first Freestyle Training Video with the visiting freestyle champions. The video will be available at major sports and music outlets.

“We are encouraging amateur Indian freestylers to post their videos on www.freestylefriendzy.in to seek votes for skills and also help popularize the sport further,” added Xavier.

Also known as street style, Freestyle Football is extremely popular in North America, Europe and parts of Asia. A very popular sport amongst the youth, it is perceived to be cool, hip and fun. The celebrity freestylers will dribble, juggle and display tricks which will leave you spellbound. So look out for the McDowell’s Freestyle Friendzy arriving in your city soon.

McDowell’s No.1 Celebration Rum is the fastest growing top rum brand in the world. Celebration Rum was launched in 1991 with a modest beginning of a hundred thousand cases. Today McDowell’s Celebration sells in excess of 10 million cases with a reach across 12 countries that, makes Celebration the 2nd largest selling dark rum in the world.

Part of the McDowell’s franchise with the highest FMCG retail value of Rs 8300 crores*, Celebration Rum is the largest selling rum in India, with a market share of 52% and growing. The proud recipient of several prestigious awards, Celebration Rum owes it success largely to the high quality standards that McDowell’s No.1 Celebration Rum provides its consumers and this has been recognized at the highest International level.