With only dribbling ability, Who is deserved to be number one of all-time between Grarincha, Maradona, George Best and Ronaldo ? These all four were superb and seems equal.
TEST: Which was the only among those four who didn't have the whole pitch to evolve, had no faithful German shepherds 'protecting' him all the time & with the same & seemingly innocuous dribble to the right decided two WCs in a row to his country? ... PS: Number1 overall dribbler though is Pelé.
I'd suggest the top 3 might include: Johan Cruyff Diego Maradona George Best Then these 30 would be among the next I think: Pele Ronaldo Garrincha Zico Michael Laudrup Brian Laudrup Ronaldinho Zinedine Zidane Luis Figo Roger Milla George Weah Dejan Savicevic Roberto Baggio Florian Albert Safet Susic Faas Wilkes Giussepe Meazza Gianni Rivera Pierre Littbarski Jean Tigana Roberto Rivelino Ryan Giggs John Barnes Tom Finney Stanley Matthews Paul Gascoigne Robert Pires Dragan Dzajic Lionel Messi Robinho Neither list is intended to be in order and the second one isn't absolutely definitive as there are plenty of other candidates.
i've seen and read very little of him, but clodoaldo is supposed to be one of the greatest dribblers ever. his dribbling in the buildup to the carlos alberto goal is amazing.
While it was amazing, that was massively out of character for him. That sort of dribbling was certainly not his style.
From what I've seen, I rate Maradona, Cruyff and Best as the greatest dribblers. No one could manipulate the ball, change at full speed their direction with the ball, then suddenly stopping and then again going up with full explosiveness as good of them. They had guts and were not afraid of the contact. They always went straight into the the defenses. That's how I see it. Garrincha was excellent as well, no doubt about it, but to my understanding, he did not use his dribbling to roam the entire field to full effect as the three above. He isolated himself too much on the wings, while the others charged trough the middle as well, after dropping deep in their own half to pick up the ball. That made the players mentioned above more deadlier and more versatile, at least in my opinion. His movements were pretty predictable as well: he mostly went slowly inside on the left and then ''exploded'' on the right side. It was either inside out or outside in. Though he did that so well that he almost always left the defenders picking up the dust. As for Pele, he would be close to my top three. Masterful dribbling, great body feints, twists and turns that made him almost unstoppable. Great example his dribbling on the right side against Benfica before making an assist to Coutinho. Howewer, as great as he was, I had the feeling that it was easier to steal the ball from him. He did not manipulate the ball while running at full speed as well as Maradona or Cruyff or Best, and he did not have their almost perfect incredible balance while transporting the ball under pressure. Besides that, he had everything else when talking about dribbling. In recent times, I admired Ronaldo, Messi, Ronaldinho and Giggs. Great dribblers as well, especially the first two.
Hey, Garrincha was a...wing! At a time (by tactical imposition) wings had to be 'stuck' in their corners throwing the ball to the center-forwards to score. (Just like happened to another immortal dribbler - Stanley Matthews). I'll have to paste back the post you can find in this same page & obviously you didn't read: Your criticism hardly holds. Notwithstanding in 62 with Pelé's injury he assumed the whole pitch & ended up with the Cup. Impressions, impressions, impressions ... Ronaldinho same level or superior (as far as dribbling ability). But that's my impression.LOL
Any specific reason you rate Ronaldo(I assume pre-1999 here) lower than Maradona, Cruyff, Best and probably Garrincha too? I am curious to know since you mentioned this as your criteria and I don't understand which of the above mentioned attributes the pre-1999 Ronaldo fails to satisfy.
See my top3? Garrincha: control+ tricks + speed + acceleration (despite of his unballanced body) Maradona control+tricks + speed + acceleration (could be #1) Pele = Ronaldo (hard debate here as both got all tricks, speed and acceleration like Maradona and Garrincha but latter 2 got slightly better ball control)
James, Just to put Maradona above Pelé in that item shows your (let's not say ignorance, its unelegant) but naïveté on the matter. The King was the King because he was the best in ALL fundaments. Maradona indeed was a great dribbler but in that aspect he loses to many (even Denilson): he got to the level of genius because of great dribbling + passing + speed + vision of the game all together. Pelé in all those aspects was superior (Garrrincha also, with exception maybe of vision of game, which he didn't need so much since he was not a mid). As a dribbler, Ronaldo loses to many more like Leônidas, Ademir, Matthews, Dorval, Best, Zico, Romário, Ronaldinho. As for the 90's & 00's he was pretty good though.
Let me say first that all these issues about dribbling are mainly opinions. There is no fact that would say ''That player is the greatest dribbler.''. About Ronaldo, he relied too much on his speed. By watching him at his prime, you would notice that he predominantly was beating the defenders by outrunning them using his exceptional speed and acceleration, and obviously his strength to resist hard challenges. That made him a little bit more vulnerable, in my opinion. Also, Ronaldo, was let's say, ''too straight'' while dribbling. He always dribbled while going towards the goal vertically, regardless of the situation in front of him. That required guts and self-confidence, but that made him losing the ball a fair amount of times while trying to beat the defenders on his way (especially at Barca). The players I rank above him in terms of dribbling were more careful and smart and they knew when suddenly stop, taking short breaks, and then continue again. He was not superior at dribbling in very small areas either. By the way, the things I said about Pele in my previous post could be applied to Ronaldo's case as well. What are your thoughts on why Ronaldo could be considered as the most unstoppable dribbler?
You've just stated that Denilson was/is a better dribbler than Maradona was. I would suggest that maybe you go and find a new sport to follow, because you clearly haven't grasped this football thing.
Denilson was the greatest dribbler ever. Nor even Garrincha & Pelé were as good. The only problem is that many times Denilson only ...'dribbled'. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L7sz5iRkE8&feature=related"]YouTube- Denilson Show[/ame] PS: Come over & we'll show you in loco (beaches, futsal courts) a few of Denilson's tricks. Next man, please.
As someone who follows Real Betis I can assure you that Denilson is not the greatest dribbler of all time. Messi has 10x the dribbling ability of Denilson for starters.
Nah, He was skilled like any Brazilian, but quite average. Paulo César was more skilled than him, for example. At that moment of the final, Brazil was totally relaxed & the Italians absolutely in shreds (besides, they had come from an OT semi): they didn't even offer much fight to his surge. In view of that I think that that goal is quite overrated as 'the best collective goal ever'. Jairzinho's 2nd goal against Uruguay or his other solitary goal against England in that Cup were scored in much more crucial moments & were fruit of a much more intense & complex team work.