Kevin De Bruyne, the star midfielder for Manchester City, has signed on as a brand ambassador for the soccer training app Balln.
De Bruyne’s deal was arranged by Roc Nation, and he will conduct Balln challenges on social media and promote the app to his fans. Balln’s target market is young players aged 8 to 17.
While players execute drills indoors or outdoors, the user’s smartphone is affixed to a tripod or handled by another person. The app’s computer vision tracks player and ball movement with the help of a smartphone camera to provide feedback on shooting, pace, dribbling, agility, first touch, passing, response speed, and ball control abilities.
The app’s Player Card function assigns a rating to a user’s ability level based on previous research involving hundreds of thousands of young soccer players.
On Balln, users can watch over 350 training films, with augmented reality graphics for on-screen display while recording a player’s training session.
Chelsea FC, a Premier League club that competes with De Bruyne’s Manchester City, released its own app last year that uses a smartphone camera to evaluate players in its youth academy. Other apps in the soccer training space include Techne, Famer, GoldCleats and HomeCourt.
