In football, clubs can score from open play and set pieces. To consistently score from open play, teams must be extensively drilled in building from the back and transiting to the opponent’s goal.
In modern football, this requires intensive positional discipline and ball-playing prowess.
Teams that have mastered this regimen are favored to win games on top bookmaker apps like bet9ja – how to get bet9ja old mobile.
On the other hand, set pieces can win you games from almost nothing.
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Free kick specialists are renowned for producing magical goals that won some of the most prestigious fixtures.
This article honours six of the best free-kick takers in the history of football.
Juninho Pernambucano
Juninho Pernambucano will always come up top no matter the metric you use in ranking the best-ever free-kick takers in football. Whether it’s a technique or the numbers, he’s ahead of any other retired or active footballer.
Out of the 100 goals he scored for Olympique Lyonnais, a whopping 44 were free kicks.
Juninho stunned the world when he beat Olivier Khan, one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the time, with a long-range free kick in the 2003-04 UEFA Champions League.
A closer look at the free kick revealed he used the knuckleball, a peculiar technique at the time. The ball flew with almost no spin before changing direction mid-flight to confuse the goalkeeper.
Since then, footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo have used the knuckleball technique. Junninho scored 77 career free kicks, and no player in football history has more.
Sinisa Mihajlovic
Sinisa MihaJlovic was a fantastic player and also a free-kick maestro. He played as a defender and defensive midfielder for top clubs like Roma, Lazio, Inter Milan, and many others.
Since most of his career happened in Serie A, his most astonishing free-kick records happened there.
MihaJlovic has the most free-kick goals in Serie A history with 28. He’s also the second Serie A player with the most free-kick goals in all competitions, with 43.
Mihajlovic is one of the only two players to have ever scored a hat-trick of free-kicks in the Italian Serie A. He achieved the feat while playing for Lazio against his old friend, Sampdoria, in 1998.
MiahJlovic’s free-kick style depends heavily on his swerve.
He loved to swerve the ball with power to the most unsavable areas of the goal. He died on December 16, 2022.
Diego Maradona
Declared the “Player of the Century” by FIFA itself, Diego Maradona had many things to be proud of in his incredible career. He’s unarguably one of the greatest dribblers that the world has ever seen.
Fans and media nicknamed the 1986 World Cup winner “El Pibe De Oro” because of his football abilities.
His free-kick abilities made him more threatening and unpredictable because he could score almost at will.
Maradona would raise his knee at a high angle while striking the ball to lift it over the wall and score. With his style, he scored 62 free kicks in his career.
His free-kick style influenced football greats like Lionel Messi and Gianfranco Zola. Maradona died on November 25, 2020.
Lionel Messi
Messi is the active footballer with the most free-kick goals. He’s scored 60 goals from dead balls, 51 for his club sides, and 9 for Argentina.
The Argentine has won the Ballon d’Or seven times in his career, more than any other player in history.
Messi plays most of his free kicks by curling the ball with his left foot over the wall into the top corner.
He wasn’t a free-kick expert in the early stages of his career, but he seemed to get better at dead balls the more he aged.
On April 27, 2019, Lionel Messi scored his 600th career goal via a 35-yard free-kick against Liverpool in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
Michel Platini
Michel Platini is unarguably one of football’s greatest players of all time.
The attacking midfielder is a proud winner of three consecutive Ballon d’Or awards (1983, 1984, and 1985).
Platini is also among the game’s best free-kick takers of all time.
Michel Platini’s free kicks style was flawless. He would hit the ball directly over the wall into the goal. His kicks were almost unsavable because of their unpredictability.
He could curve the ball or hit it directly over the wall with power, depending on the distance and position.
Also, he could hit the ball such that it would bounce off the ground before reaching the goal. Platini scored 50 free-kick goals in his career.
Zico
Zico was a phenomenon during his playing days. Aside from his free-kick abilities, the Brazilian was an exceptional attacking midfielder with an eye for goals.
He scored 48 goals for the Brazilian National team and almost 200 for his club sides.
Zico plays his free kicks by striking the ball with his instep to achieve a dipping effect and beat the goalkeeper.
While many free-kick takers often target the top corner, he could put the ball to the sides of the goalpost, and the goalkeeper won’t still be able to reach it.
He scored 62 goals from dead balls in his career. Players like Roberto Baggio have tried to emulate Zico’s free-kick playing style.
It is pertinent to note that football has seen many phenomenal free-kick takers, and players like David Beckham, Ronaldinho, and Cristiano Ronaldo are notable mentions.
However, the players on this list are six of the best free-kick specialists in football history.
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