First it was Roger Federer, then the All Blacks had a crack and now football star David Beckham has wowed the internet with his trick shot prowess - but the question on everyone's lips is, is it real? A new clip published on Pepsi's YouTube channel shows Beckham on a California beach making some seemingly impossible trick shots - he is apparently able to easily shoot three balls into far away garbage cans while barefoot. The debate over whether the shots are real has sent the clip viral, and it has garnered almost 900,000 views in just a few days. If it is fake it was clearly designed to look spontaneous.
"David Beckham is good, but surely he's not this good," wrote FootballFanCast. A YouTube user wrote: "He can kick it spot into these bins but cannot hit the net from 12 yards for England in big matches, lol."Sport blog The Cheap Seats wasn't so much concerned about whether the shots were real or fake but the way in which Beckham was drinking his Diet Pepsi. "Beckham uses a straw to drink his soda. Straws are for small children and old people. Or stirring," the blog wrote.
Craig Foster, former Australian football player and now SBS pundit, said he had no idea whether the shots were real or contrived "but the fact that the vision is believable says everything about the technical accuracy required to play the beautiful game".
"David Beckham built a decorated career from being able to perfectly dissect a tiny space, on the run, from forty to fifty metres, under pressure by an opponent, landing the ball on a teammate's chest or perfectly in front of him so as not to break his momentum, or curling the ball over a wall of men into the top corner with an accuracy within fractions of a millimetre," he said.
The clip is reminiscent of the Ronaldinho "Crossbar Challenge" ad the Brazilian footballer shot for Nike in 2005. In another Nike ad, which also appears to be fake, Kobe Bryant is shown jumping over an Aston Martin.
Foster said the skills of players like Ronaldinho and Beckham made the seemingly technically impossible appear possible, even if the clips were fake.
Professional sports people have proved to be viral gold for big brands, which have become better and better at creating ad campaigns that appear to be organic viral hits.
In August last year, Roger Federer appeared in a YouTube clip for Gillette serving a tennis ball and knocking a can off someone's head with it twice in a row. This set off a flurry of speculation on whether the shots were real and Australian tennis great Todd Woodbridge was even moved to question its veracity. Not long after, apparently inspired by Federer, the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team published a series of clips showing their skills with the oval ball.
In a parody clip, the NSW Waratahs soon release their own version, as did the ACT Brumbies. In the Waratahs clip Kurtley Beale, Drew Mitchell, Benn Robinson and Tatafu Polota-Nau spend one minute 40 seconds getting "tricky" with rugby balls, pot plants, a kiddies' pool and a barbecue. In another clip published on YouTube in November last year, English cricketer Kevin Pietersen is shown smashing sixes while wearing a blindfold.
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