Messi, Kollywood and the Class of '92 - Jamie Knight's freestyle football world

Ask any busker why they do what they do and they may tell you 'everybody has to start from somewhere'.

BB King jammed the blues on Beale Street, Memphis. Ed Sheeran chose the London Underground. Pierce Brosnan, apparently, was not averse to the odd bit of fire eating on his way to getting the job as 007, M's paid assassin. Robin Williams perfected his miming techniques in front of walkers and joggers in New York's Central Park.

For Jamie Knight it was his freestyle football routine that had the crowds stopping to take a closer look.

The £169 collected from busking on Lisburn's High Street one Saturday afternoon in 2009 gave the then-Methodist College Belfast student the inkling of an idea that some streets are paved with gold.

"My mother had suggested I get a weekend job. I didn't fancy what I saw at the job centre and because I was into freestyle, I decided to see how this would go," explains the 28-year-old.

"That was more than I would have earned in a cafe or a bar. It was a light bulb moment."

Eleven years into a career as a freestyle footballer, Knight has created a lucrative one-man business that has seen him somersault his way from one Premier League ground to another with a football cradled on the back of his neck, or some other part of his anatomy.

"Busking on the street six hours a day was the best possible preparation you could ask for," says Knight, who has been based in London for four years.

"I got used to being in front of people all the time. I'm relaxed now for the big performances."

And there have been many of these - including a Champions League final, Kollywood film sets as well as big corporate occasions.

"Our whole family were competitive swimmers. That was the main sport in our house. My older brother Steven held a few Ulster backstroke records. I came third in an Irish Schools Championship," recounts Knight, with an obvious sense of pride.

"We used to train at the Grove Baths several times a week. We'd be up at 5am for a session in the pool before getting to school refreshed and ready for class. It was hard work, but it would stand me in good stead later."

"At Methody, Steven advised me to play rugby because that was a good way to become popular. I got into the 'B' team in second year. I played scrum-half because I was small. Up against really big guys, I hated it."

As Knight's skills and tricks with the round ball began to develop, he became less interested in playing in any organised football team.

"When you would see images of kids playing on a beach in Brazil, they conveyed a real freedom of expression in what they were doing. There wasn't much of that in the Northern Ireland teams. It was unnecessarily rough," he admits.

Uncertain of the path that he wanted to follow from school, Knight chose the University of Manchester to study international finance, business and economics.

At that stage studying and freestyle were overlapping. Many of the aspects of his intense swimming regime carried into training and preparation for freestyle. What Knight liked to do for fun was earning him more than pocket money.

"To be honest, busking paid my way through college and looked after my social life as well. I practised a lot," he said.

"I hadn't done gymnastics, but the body strength I got from swimming was a real help. The better I got, the more I earned. I'd street perform three Saturdays a month and could collect anything between £200 to £400.

However not every busking session guaranteed a bulging money bag.

"There were times when I was a bit broke and I would be performing for all the wrong reasons.

"My mindset was in another place. On days like that it worked against me. At times it was lousy."

Any concerns that the street life might not be for him were short lived. At home for the Christmas holidays, a three-hour busk at Belfast's Cornmarket circle brought in a tidy £810.

"I was 20 and was performing in front of a packed crowd. It was affirmation that I could make a business out of this.

"Waiting to get onto a graduate trainee course, I spent three months in Dublin, where I was earning over 2000 euro a week freestyling on Grafton Street."

When a London accountancy firm came calling, Knight made the move. The ball and routines were put away for nine months until boredom of an office interior convinced him to return to what he loved best in May 2016.

"Part of me had never liked the idea of having a safe job for the next 20 years. There was something about the uncertainty of what lay ahead that was appealing."

The strategy of moving his product away from the pavement and into the world of the Premier League, UEFA, and commercial advertising was about to be put to the test.

After persistent knocking, Knight's personable manner began to open doors and his base of clients wanting pre-match, half-time or mid-conference entertainment began to expand.

He worked on his routines and choices of music. Calvin Harris' 'Slide' merged perfectly into a four minute mixture of gymnastic and football wizardry.

"Some clients can be very picky about how much time they are giving you. Some don't even let you on the pitch," he adds.

"Chelsea though are very flexible. You have a lot of freedom at Stamford Bridge. The crowd there is great. It's brilliant when I'm on the pitch with the camera man who is beaming it on to the big screen."

And there are some enmities that will never change

"When I did Anfield, I had to wear a full Liverpool kit, which as a Manchester United fan, I regret," laughs Knight.

"My dad gave me stick for weeks, and I'm sure that's why I have never appeared at Old Trafford. I must be in their black books. And I can't blame them."

In 2017, the Champions League final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium beckoned. This was an opportunity to perform to a global audience and to bear witness to a Ronaldo brace as Real Madrid cruised to the 4-1 defeat of Juventus.

"Well, yes, and no," responds a hesitant Knight. "It was an incredible platform for me. 70,000 in the ground. An estimated half-a-billion tuned in around the globe.

"However, there were no spare side line seats for people who weren't players, coaches or officials. With military precision, they had me out of the ground and on a bus back to London within five minutes of finishing my routine. I did manage to catch some of the game on my iPad."

And like Real Madrid, Knight was back in the Champions League final the following year as the Spanish kings out manoeuvred Liverpool in Kiev.

Supporters at England internationals at Wembley will have come to recognise him as a regular, too.

The film and commercial world has been taking note of Jamie Knight's ball skills.

Last year he spent a couple of weeks in Chennai, as a body double in a Kollywood movie starring one of India's major stars, Joseph Vijay - known as Thalapathy, the Commander

"That was a huge experience for me. I was there as stunt double for the football tricks," recalls Knight.

He remembers the heat, too: "It was 44 degrees in the shade. The make-up people who had tanned up my skin had to follow me everywhere because the make up was running."

Although they did not get to meet face to face, there was an advertising shoot with Lionel Messi who filmed his part in Spain for Expo 2020.

Knight has worked with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and the Class of '92. David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Robbie Keane, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Rio Ferdinand are all admirers of his craft.

"It's funny. Some professional footballers have asked me how I do what I do? They think that it's football. But football and freestyle are two different sports.

"In fact, freestyle has its own world championships. I'm by no means the best. I did manage to get into the top 10 one year."

During the present enforced lull in proceedings Jamie Knight is applying his business expertise to the future when life will allow sport to open up once more.

"My plan is to keep going until after the next European Championship and beyond that to the World Cup finals in 2024. I will see how passionate I remain about it then.

"Maybe I will gradually step away from performance to develop the business side. I'm already doing school workshops. That is an important area for me.

"Someday I might want a complete change and do something else. I want freestyle football to be regarded only as a chapter in my life, not the whole thing."

That light bulb moment from High Street Lisburn in 2009 is burning undiminished these days.