-"Garrincha feint" (not touching the ball and making defenders fall anyway) - Pelé 'off-the-legs' dribble or "rebound dribble"(hitting the ball on purpose to the legs of a defender to make a wall pass to himself) http://www.360soccer.com/pele/pelepl05.html -Rivelino elastico for me: 1940s: Stanley Matthews 1950s: Zizinho 1960s: Garrincha, George Best, Pelé 1970s: Cruyff, Rivelino 1980s: Maradona 1990s: Ronaldo 2000s: Messi, Ronaldinho
No love for Romario? The greatest penalty box dribbler ever? The best since the 80s: Early 80s: Zico Late 80s: Maradona Early 90s: Romario Late 90s: Ronaldo Early 00s: Ronaldinho Late 00s: Messi
It's interesting as I was always debating to myself whether I should rate Romario as better dribbler than Baggio ? Later on, I made up my mind to put Baggio in front, for his style was more "versatile" than Romario(who was most often did a quick turn and great in 's monotonous move (yet so effective) in one on one ... but besides, he was not so great in long run, nor against multiple players surrounded!
Romario had better (closer) ball control (even better than Ronaldo's) and could dribble in a much smaller space. No one could dribble better than Romario inside the penalty box. Not only that, Romario has also scored multiple goals on long runs after dribbling a handful of defenders (at WC 1994, PSV etc.). The reason why Baggio seems to be a more versatile dribbler is because he was playing more in the midfield and had more space to operate in (also move sideways etc.). Romario was usually perched up in the penalty box and was too lazy to come down. But, when he did (e.g., against USA in WC 1994), he could take on a whole defensive unit all on his own. And, no matter where he received the ball on or near the box, he was almost unstoppable, no matter how many defenders were in front of him.
You're right, Romario is excellent in the box with his superb close ball control. However, that's ball control, part of basis to help dribbling skills, but not exactly dril;ing skills per se .. *for example Zidane is among the geatest players in ball control, but he is NOT in my TOP10 best dribblers surely) That's why I called Romario dribble skill is "monotomous" (but admittedly very effecient). The lieks Ronaldo and Baggio could start dribbling from midway and entering the box and also inside the box. Ronaldo in his best form 96-98, always got at least 2,3 defenders surrounded (not like Romario with mostly 1 marker) - look close to his clip in Barca, Inter and WC98, copa97, 99 - so I disagreed with you on Romario better than Ronaldo in smaller space! Ronaldo is among the rare players (with Pele, Garrincha, Best and Maradona) who does not require space nor being able to mark out of game in 90minutes - IMPOSSIBLE. Cruiijff , Mathews, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Figo Henry, Kaka, Messi C.Ronaldo Boniek Bergkamp bastem ... are all very good dribblers too, but they still required more space to be efficient in dribbling - well anyway it's very clear Roanldo is a better dribbler than Romario and Baggio, no contest - Ronaldo got tons of tricks under his legs to dribble passed opponents plus his thunder speed ( Romario and Baggio, it is a close call, as these two relied mostly on their ball control to dribble but I give Baggio a nod for he could do on left, right and outside the box
This Pele dribble is so amazing that it's unbelievable how frequently he used to pull it off. If you hit a ball off a flat surface, it's future location is predictable. However, it's difficult to control the future location of the ball by hitting the medial surface of an opponent's leg (which is not flat) with the ball while running at speed. The King often used to go past 3/4 players at a time doing this move.
Did someone post this? A compilation of best dribblers in Maracana Stadium... [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmDAeuwrqww&feature=related"]YouTube- Dribles que marcaram história no Maracanã - lances lindos[/ame]
Let's be honest Cristiano Ronaldo is the best dribbler in the game today, he may may be even the the best ever. Don't get me wrong Messi is still the best player in the World but not best dribbler.
NO Messi is the best dribbler in the world today and BOTH, Messi + C.Ronaldo are NOT among the best dribblers ever (surely NOT in TOP5 bests)
Let us say they're style of dribbling is different ,but both are very good dribblers... In the top5 all-time I would sure put this 5 players ; George Best-Maradona-Matthews-Garrincha-Ronaldo
Different era altogether game was slower, some of the players were even smoking and drinking just before their games back then!
Prosinečki was known to smoke a hell lot of cigarettes in the 90s, yet that didn't stop him to dominate and playing very well.
Zidane also smoked, my point is the majority of players nowadays don't smoke or drink alcohol before games where as in the 60's 70' and 80's players were known to have being boozing and smoking,before games hence the game was slower back then than now.
For me 50's: Leonidas 60's: Garrincha 70's: Cruijff 80's: Maradona 90's: Djalminha 00's-06: Denilson, Ronaldinho