With the Red Bull Street Style World Finals 2010 beginning in South Africa next week, we look at six of the greatest football wizards ever to juggle a ball.
Not for the feint-hearted
Even an inauspicious end to a glittering career, when he headbutted Marco Materazzi in the dying minutes of the 2006 World Cup final defeat to Italy and was dismissed, wasn’t enough to dampen the French fans’ ardour for Marseille-born midfielder Zinedine Zidane (pictured, above), with then-President of the Fifth Republic Jacques Chirac making him a guest of honour at a post-final players’ reception. With a dip of the shoulder, Zizou would feint one way and then another, or even spin around completely, taking the ball with him in a series of small touches that would make even world-class defenders look rather foolish. See more of the former Bordeaux, Juventus and Real Madrid man in this YouTube compilation.
A nice drop of Madeira
From Funchal, on the island of Madeira, via Sporting, in his country’s capital Lisbon, Cristiano Ronaldo burst into the top echelons of world football, aged 18, at Manchester United, where he quickly made his name as a dizzying trickster with lightning pace. Apart from the stepover, a particular favourite trick of Ronaldo’s is the backheel – not that tricky you might say, except it’s against his own shin, rebounding the ball beyond any hapless opponent attempting to dispossess him. After 84 goals from 196 games, perhaps inevitably, he became one of the ‘Galácticos’ of Real Madrid, where he became the most expensive (€94m/£80m) and reputedly best-paid player in football history. See why he’s so pricey here.
The Feet of God
England fans who remember the 1986 World Cup quarter-final against Argentina still complain bitterly about Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal, but one of the greatest moments of El Diego’s career was the so-called ‘Goal of the Century’ five minutes later, a 60m solo dash with deftness of touch that left Steve Hodge, Peter Beardsley, Terry Butcher and Terry Fenwick for dead and gave goalkeeper Peter Shilton no chance. Perhaps the most revered player alive or dead, Maradona can still do no wrong in the eyes of most Argentinians, despite his very colourful personal history. Relive the goal that took his team to the ’86 semis or, if you’re English, look away now…
Gaúcho marks
Former Grêmio, Paris St Germain and Barcelona player Ronaldinho, aka Gaúcho (to distinguish him from fellow Brazilian Ronaldo, known himself back home as ‘Ronaldinho’), now at Milan, began playing football on the tricky surface of a sandy beach, so perhaps it’s not surprising that when it came to learning ball control, he became one of the world’s best, often using training sessions and warm-ups to entertain with his juggling act. A star of two World Cups, Ronaldinho has nevertheless not played for his country for almost a year – will he make it to World Cup 2010? Here’s why he should.
By George…
George Best might have been up half the night before a match at a club before taking someone else’s wife home for the rest of it – and he ended up on a self-destructive spiral of drink that prematurely ended his football career, and then his life at the age of just 59 in 2005 – but when he got on the ball, the Northern Irishman usually stayed there, despite some of the ‘workmanlike’ attempts to wrest him off it. His lightness of touch and ability to ‘nutmeg’ the ball through players’ legs made him a target for vengeful opponents, but also guaranteed him a place in sporting history that eclipses the sad story his life eventually became. Watch Best’s best bits.
Small but powerful
Lionel Messi is Diego Maradona’s self-appointed successor and also, like Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho elsewhere in this list, a recipient of the FIFA World Player of the Year award, and it’s not hard to see why on either count. Barcelona offered to pay for treatment for a growth hormone deficiency when Messi was a child on condition that he sign for them, and so his family, who were otherwise unable to afford the medical bills, relocated to Spain from Argentina. With Messi making it to a height of 169cm (5’7”), quite tall enough for a striker, the 22-year-old already has 79 goals for Barca in 133 matches, and talent by the bucketload, the best of which you can enjoy here. His family needn't worry about the bills any more, either… Messi now tops the list of earners in world soccer when you include his sponsorship deals – a cool €33.1m a year (£29.6m) – ahead of previous leader David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo.
See who is seeking to emulate the world’s best talents at redbullstreetstyle.com
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