Boy Juggling or Football in The Background?

Ok, I recieved this optical illusion recently, and thought to my self: “Funny! It appears that the boy is juggling, while in fact the ball is standing still on the grass in the background”. Wrong! It is the other way arround actually! In the first case, the ball would have to be much bigger than actual to appear normal-sized (because of the distance). On the other hand, if the boy is juggling, it would have to be much smaller, since it looks really small. Then it hit me! The boy you see is juggling a mini soccer ball! You might have seen those during World Cup in Germany! Did you like this illusion? I did for sure! It belongs to Relative Sizes Category.

72 Replies to “Boy Juggling or Football in The Background?”

  1. of course he is juggling because ifnot then the ball would have to be inmense….. its still cool though… by the way i loooove this page… greetings from mexico!

  2. The ball doesnt seem to have a substantial shadow on the ground so it must be in the air. It fooled me though. Good one!

    1. to me it looks like the sun is behind him so if the ball was on the ground you could see the shadow by the balls right or you left but if it was in the air you could see the shadow but the camera cut it off .it is in the air

  3. it CAN be a ball statue in the background, and if you look closely there is a shadow, its just really long like all the other shadows…..at the local soccer fields, they have soccer balls that are made of…..whatever statues are made of…stone? and theyre like 3 feet in diameter and make REALLY uncomfortable seats. so it can be that.

  4. it does look like the ball is on the ground at first, and then i said no, because there’s no shadow. then it looked photoshopped. is it possible that it is photoshopped?

  5. I really believe that the ball is actually on the ground, just a larger ball to make it look like the normal size if it was in the forefront with the kid

  6. Its pretty weak guys, stop being so polite. There are slight manifestations of “mind trickery” but it’s intensity level is a mere 4.5 on a scale of 10. Too many indecissive discussions to even consider it being truely mind boggling. NEXT PHOTO PLEASE!

  7. Sorry folks. The shadow on the grass both before and after gives the game away. Otherwise the illusion would have worked due to the lack of the third-dimension in photography. Whoever presented it should have noticed.

  8. I’m confused. I thought juggling consists of 2 or more objects? Besides, the ball appears to be on the ground and there is a “long” shadow that goes along with it.

    I think the ball in the backround is exactly that… a ball in the backround. Maybe this “effect” has to do with the angling of some sort… who knows. This illusion sort of reminds me of a previous one posted:

    “Fountains Abbey Church Illusion”

    This is in the Archives for 9/06/06.

  9. i think its on the ground in the distance. if he really was juggling it then he wouldn’t be standing up straight, he would have one leg out.

    and there is also a shadow on the ground underneath the soccer ball

  10. No, he’s juggleing a size 2 soccer ball. Soccer balls come in all different sizes. Little kids play with size 4, but professionals and high school play with 5. There is also sizes 1, 2, and 3. If you look at the picture, the boy is on his toes; his heels are off the ground. When you play soccer, or are juggling, your heels need to be off the ground so you can react quickly. In addition, the ball is much too large in proportion with the fireing barrel in the background to be sitting on the ground away from the boy. The boy’s attention is also on the ball. He’s defiantly juggling.

  11. it doesn’t look like he’s juggling it at all
    and as for a shadow — that would depend on where the light was hitting it so the absence of one means nothing
    not a good illusion at all – actually, it’s the absence of one

  12. definitely a shop or the ball is in the background. if he were juggling it, there would be his reflection on the ball’s surface, and not just the trees. this lends to the fact that the ball is indeed in the background, on the ground.

    (the possibilty of a shop exists as the bottom of the ball seems to be abnormally flat, and the ligt reflected doesn’t match the actual light source.

  13. If the boy actually was juggling the ball (I assume that means kicking it up in the air with his feet?) I think it would probably break his foot as you can clearly see based on the reflections on the ball that it is metallic. Therefore it is most likely a statue in the background and the reason you think you don’t see a shadow is because of the suns low position which created a long shadow.

  14. i dont think the boy is juggling b/c his hands wud be up trying to catch the ball wudnt they? also it looks too big to be a juggling ball

  15. Umm…the shadow beneath the ball could be from a tree or something, because it is bigger than the ball (and not the right shape) and if the shadow was from a tree(most likely!!) the ball would be completely shadowed not shadowed on one side.
    I descibe it in two words… WHOA, Cool!

  16. I agree with “sweet”, “infinity”, and “trilogy22”. This was so pathetic I almost feel stupid posting anything.

  17. The shadow on the ball is on the opposite side as are all the other shadows in the entire picture. Cleary shopped in yo.

  18. Cool illusion.

    There is a shadow on the very left corner of the ball. The ball is slightly in front of the boy and slightly towards the person who took the picture, and the shadow of the ball is accurate in terms of angle of the sun. What’s with the photoshop downers?

  19. OK, 1 hes juggling as in soccer, you kick up the ball, it comes down, and you kick it up again, not juggling with your hands, 2 why would they make a statue at like thigh height for kids to trip over in what appears to be a sports field, 3 the shadow under it is from a tree, it goes out from the ball on both sides, 4 go to the doors are alive illusion and read it, 5 why does everyone think everything cool is photoshopped, and 6 am i the only one looking at the sweet purple car?

  20. He’s not juggling it or ‘hacky-sacking’ it. It is behind him. sure it doesnt have a distinct shadow..but neither does the boy. they got it to have its shadow blend in so it seems the boy has kicked it in the air

  21. Come on, this is so obvious. The ball is sitting on the grass. It doesn’t even look like an illusion to me. The boy doesn’t look like he’s “mid-juggle”. The ball is way to small to appear real if it’s close up. There’s a freakin shadow on the grass. How can anyone believe the ball is in mid-air?

  22. look at where the light is hitting them, they arent at the same spots…possibly photoshopped if not on the ground…it could be a big ball compared to a small child

  23. It didn’t fool me at all. It just looks like a boy standing there with a ball sitting on the grass in the background. I don’t like this one much.

  24. good god you people are so retarded. incredibly retarded! i find it amazing that you can even operate computers, let alone wipe your own asses

    the US isn’t the centre of the universe!

    i’m going to kill myself now, i can’t take it anymore. the internet has been ruined by you stupid people.

    every last one of you, stupid to the core!

  25. My mom says i am beautiful even though i dont have a face.. I have a butt on my face and a face obn my but.. So i pee out my face but its my butt.. anywa peeping tom will come and get you all stay away from the fashion mal.. and this ilusions sucks bacon

    1. how does it look like hes juggling?? when i saw the name i thought it was supposed to look like a person juggling in the background as in a shadow or branches

  26. Okay i don’t see how it looks like hes juggling what so ever! and he looks like he’s standing there :S

  27. Obviously the ball would be bigger and there would be a shadow and he would of had his leg up to trap it not just standing there as if to say “hit me wherever you like i’ll just stand here”

  28. he’s doing keepy-ups with a mini (size 2) football. If that ball was on the grass in the background when he went over to it, it would up to his knee at least – propper sized (5) footballs aren’t that big

  29. first: it’s called football. not soccer. i live in australia and constantly despair of where the word soccer came from.
    Second: it doesn’t look like he’s juggling because it’s a STILL IMAGE. obviously, you can’t see him moving in a frozen instant of time. but you can see his foot raised, and he’s clearly looking at the ball.
    Third: how can he be playing football without other people? clearly, he’s juggling.
    Fourth: those balls are still REALLY popular here in aus. JSYK. so it was a bit obvious when i saw it. but reading other’s comments was funny. :D

    1. uhm i live in australia too and yeah it is called soccer so yeah your kinda wrong
      and ive never seen those types of balls before

      just sayingg ^___^

  30. ummm, i thought he was juggling a mini-SOCCER ball first anyway, just in case anyone wanted to know. And it is called soccer cause football is a different sport… (thats what i rekon anyway

  31. Juggling? Doesn’t that require at least 3 balls? Or three pins? Or at least 3 of something? There’s only 1 ball, so there’s no juggling going on.

    And if you live in North America, it’s a soccer ball. If not, it’s a football. If you can’t accept the difference in naming, then screw you.

    By the way, speaking as a Canadian, American football is just wrongly named, since you use your hands far more than your feet. Stupid Americans.

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