MONTREAL -- Soccer fanatic Daniel Wassef saw an opportunity when the COVID-19 confinement and lockdown began last spring.
Rather than binge-watching Netflix or beginning a sourdough bread starter, the 23-year-old Liverpool FC fan decided to start working on a skill he honed in high school: toe taps.
The Egyptian-Canadian from Laval first practiced and then nailed kicking a soccer ball over his head backwards into a basketball net.
Once he did that, he got another idea.
"That's what inspired me to do a world record," he said. "I said why stop there?"
He looked it up and noticed the record stood at 100 toe taps in a minute. He figured it was something he could do.
"It's something I'm really, really good at," he said. "I used to do toe taps all the time."
On his first try, he broke the record with 132 taps.
However, he didn't have the appropriate confirmation the Guinness World Records people need, so he did it again with the appropriate witnesses and video.
On his next try, on May 16, 2020, he shattered his own record with 151 taps.
"It feels great," he said. "It really made me more confident because I feel if I broke one record in my life, I can break two more."
The record did not last long, however, as Himanshu Mishra of Vadodara, India broke the record on August 20 with 171 taps.
In June he plans to beat the toe tap record again, and also break the record for the longest time balancing a soccer ball on his foot.
It is the second time during the pandemic that someone in Quebec has broken a Guinness World Record.
Karim El Hayani broke the world record for running a half-marathon barefoot on snow or ice in March.
Daniel Wassef has been playing soccer since he was 10 following his dad's passion.
"I started becoming a fanatic because they had amazing power shots that I would see and those amazing moves they do," said Wassef. "Then, I was like, 'wow. That's a great sport."
