Bicycle kick
[8] In most cases, they either refer to the kick's scissor-like motion, such as the French ciseaux retourné (returned scissor) and the Greek psalidaki, or to its bicycle-like action, such as the Portuguese pontapé de bicicleta.
[8][9] This exception is most significant in Spanish, where a fierce controversy exists between Chile and Peru—as part of their historic sports rivalry—over the naming of the bicycle kick; Chileans and most Latin Americans know it as the chilena, while Peruvians call it the chalaca.
[26] Witzig recommends players attempting the move to land on their upper back, using their arms as support, and simultaneously rolling over to a side in order to diminish impact from the drop.
[28] Due to the action's complexity, a successfully executed bicycle kick is notable and, according to sports journalist Elliott Turner, prone to awe audiences.
[33][34][D] Nevertheless, the available facts and dates tell a straightforward narrative, indicating that the bicycle kick's invention occurred in South America, during an era of innovation in association football tactics and skills.
[8][30][38][39] British immigrants, attracted by South America's economic prospects, including the export of coffee from Brazil, hide and meat from Argentina, and guano from Peru, introduced football to the region during the 1800s.
[42] Football's practice had previously spread from Britain to continental Europe, principally Belgium, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, but the game had no innovations in these locations.
[46] While their ships were docked, British mariners played football among themselves and with locals as a form of leisure; the sport's practice was embraced at the ports because its simple rules and equipment made it accessible to the general public.
[46][48] The bicycle kick could also have been first performed in the 1910s by Ramón Unzaga, a Spanish-born Basque athlete who naturalized Chilean, at Chile's seaport of Talcahuano, there receiving the name chorera (alluding the local demonym).
[59][60] His capability to perform bicycle kicks with ease was one of the traits that made him stand out from other players early in his sports career, and it also boosted his self-confidence as a footballer.
[61] After Pelé, Argentine midfielder Diego Maradona and Mexican forward Hugo Sánchez became notable performers of the bicycle kick during the last decades of the 20th century.
[62] Other notable players to have performed the move during this period include Peruvian winger Juan Carlos Oblitas, who scored a bicycle kick goal in a 1975 Copa América match between Peru and Chile, and Welsh forward Mark Hughes, who scored from a bicycle kick in a World Cup qualification match played between Wales and Spain in 1985.
[64] According to former Manchester City defender Paul Lake, a notable bicycle kick performed by English left winger Dennis Tueart caused injuries to hundreds of fans who tried to emulate it.
[65] In 2012, a fan poll from The Guardian awarded English forward Wayne Rooney's 2011 Manchester derby bicycle kick the title of best goal in the Premier League's history.
[76] In the Korea-Japan 2002 World Cup, Belgian attacking midfielder Marc Wilmots scored what English football writer Brian Glanville describes as a "spectacular bicycle kick" against Japan.
[72] A Google Doodle in September 2013, celebrating Leônidas da Silva's 100th birthday, prominently featured a bicycle kick performed by a stick figure representing the popular Brazilian forward.
[79] Bicycle kicks have also been featured in advertisements such as a 2014 television commercial where Argentine forward Lionel Messi executes the manoeuvre to promote that year's FIFA football simulation video game.
[80] In 2022, FIFA, through its official Twitter account in Spanish, rekindled the controversial origin of the bicycle kick asking users if the maneuver was a "chalaca" or a "chilena" (alluding to the dispute between Peruvians and Chileans).
[81] A monument to the bicycle kick executed by Ramón Unzaga was erected in Talcahuano, Chile, in 2014; created by sculptor María Angélica Echavarri, the statue is composed of copper and bronze and measures three meters in diameter.
[83] The Peruvian Nobel laureate writer Mario Vargas Llosa has the protagonist in The Time of the Hero's Spanish edition declare that the bicycle kick must have been invented in Callao, Peru.
