This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, Oct 2011, available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17511321.2011.602589 FALLING FOR THE FEINT – AN EXISTENTIAL INVESTIGATION OF A CREATIVE PERFORMANCE IN HIGH-LEVEL FOOTBALL Kenneth Aggerholm, Ejgil Jespersen and Lars Tore Ronglan This paper begins with the decisive moment of the 2010 Champions League final, as Diego Milito dribbles past van Buyten to settle the score. By taking a closer look at this situation we witness a complex and ambiguous movement phenomenon that seems to transcend established phenomenological accounts of performance, as a creative performance such as this cannot be reduced to bodily self-awareness or absorbed skilful coping. Instead, the phenomenon of the feint points to a central question we need to ask when investigating performance in football: ‘How can one intentionally transcend the expectations of others?’ In order to clarify this, the paper will conduct a contextual analysis of a feint drawing on existential philosophy and phenomenology. The main argument is that the feint incarnates a fundamental and indispensable strategy in the game context of football and the analysis of it throws light on central existential phenomena involved in game creativity, with appearance, seduction, commitment and value being the focal ones. The analysis suggests a broader notion of expertise by pointing to the need of stressing the dynamic and social game context. What the feint explicates is that in football it is not enough to be aware of your own body or rely on your embodied habits. In order to cope in the game situation it is also necessary to be absorbed in the other and transcend his or her expectations. KEYWORDS: game creativity; intentionality; deception; expertise; inter-subjectivity Introduction Diego Milito was the undisputed man of the match, as double goal scorer, when Inter defeated Bayern Munich 2–0 in the 2010 Champions League Final at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Before scoring the first goal, Milito made just enough of a feint to confuse the goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt, and in the second case he fooled the defender Daniel van Buyten to move to one side while doing a perfectly-timed flick to the other, and then another impressive finish. What is going on in such decisive moments? From one perspective, with Hubert Dreyfus (2002) we can look upon Milito’s performance as an outstanding example of absorbed skilful coping. Thanks to his vast repertoire of situational discriminations, Milito intuitively sees what needs to be achieved and how to achieve this without thinking about it. However, while