A Norwegian amateur soccer player plans to embark on an American football career with the Detroit Lions after impressing the NFL team with trick-shot video on Youtube.
Havard Rugland has signed a contract to kick for the Lions after creating an online video to showcase his talents last September dubbed “Kickalicious.”
Rugland, 28, played amateur soccer in his native Norway before taking an interest in American gridiron and the Youtube video has been viewed more than 2.7 million times since it first appeared.
Crucially the video attracted the attention of several NFL teams, including the Lions who are looking for a replacement for Jason Hanson, who recently ended his 21-year NFL career.
Rugland, who was signed with the Lions earlier this week, joins David Akers as possible replacements for Hanson.
“I really do think that I’m at least going to be good enough and I just have to be better than the people I’m competing with and make them believe in me and go with a guy without too much experience,” Rugland said before the Lions’ signed him.
Rugland’s “Kickalicious” video features an incredible variety of kicks through the goal posts from mind-boggling distances and angles.
He kicks the ball into garbage cans, through basketball rims and to a man on a row boat on a lake.
Former NFL kicker Michael Husted says the 6ft 2in, 240lb Rugland has a bright future.
“Havard has incredible talent as a kicker,” Husted told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “He has a cannon for a leg. As he continues to refine his technique, he could be one of the strongest kickers in the NFL.”
'Kickalicious' goes from video phenom to NFL contract
