Character kicking a ball?

Hi everyone. This is my first post ever here, so a take advantage to thank you all for this helping community and ask you to forgive for my bad english.

Now go to my problem/question: Is it possible to animate a character the usual way (armature, keyframing) kicking a soccer ball expecting that the ball´s motion is controlled by physics (i.e.: bouncing in a wall, colliding with a group of boxes, etc)? More exactly: is it possible to make the toe of the character (or either a parented object put in a different layer) to behave like an physics “actor” would, so its motion speed and direction make the ball move properly?

I´m a newbie and I´ve been looking for info but can´t find it. Also I know people here is encouraged to think by themselves on how to solve things like that with inventiveness and imagination but by now I´m stuck in this. Thanks in advance and keep in the track!!