Best Dribbler

Messi is by far the best dribbler while standing still. Ronaldo has more speed and keeps the ball close to his feet, but Messi has the best lateral movement and "conventional" skills...

And Joe Cole is an underrated dribble. Watch him vs. Tottenham this year and see some dirty skills. Too bad he screams at the referees no matter what they call...

 

I started watching football just less than a decade ago,but IMO Ronaldinho is the best dribbler I have ever watched,and followed maybe by Messi.Messi too is a great dribbler and he,unlike C. Ronaldo, can dribble his way out of the tiniest of spaces.

What about Zidane and JJ Okocha? I'm surprised people are not mentioning them here.

 

I agree J Cole is an underrated master dribbler. Although he may not be in the same class with Ronaldinho,Messi etc, he is the most skilful English player I have ever watched.English players are known to be just averagely skilful.They are only good in long ball,dead ball,kick and follow etc, not too good at dribbling like the Brazilians and Argentines.But J. Cole stands out. SWP is also trying.

 

garrincha
NO ONE comes any where near

 

and garrincha had a leg bigger than other, my dad says that he was amazing

 

I can kinda see that argument... I remember Barca played Deportivo and Coloccini kept Messi under raps pretty good... Btw, I've only seen clips on the net, but Garrincha looks like he put the fear of God in most of the defenders that came up against him...

 

yes he was amazing..some of his performance's were literally hard to believe

 

one clip sums up garrincha for me..is a clip where he is faced by 4 defenders in the 18 yard box he comes to a stop..an bursts past the 1st and cuts inside the 2nd then shapes up to a 3rd defender who comes flying at him with an x rated chalenge garrincha gets away from him an then fakes a 4th defender along with the 1st he beat an flicks the ball to his team mate for a shot on goal.he beats them all in about 10 yards of space in the space of a few seconds,simply because he could.
the crowd must have gone home happy that day..even the opposition fans too

 

WTF is this load of tripe,
the only type of conventional dribbling is moving from A to B with the ball at your feet in a straight line, everything else is unconventional.

The little tricks that are pulled of by Ronaldo and co. are just elaborations of feints and ball control.

The best dribbler is the guy who is the hardest to take the ball away from, key requisite's are ball control , pace and strength, which IMO Ronaldo is the prime example of this over Messi.

 

I agree with the Joe Cole thing. He is a very good dribbler, but i don't think he is up there with Hleb, Messi, Ronaldo or Kaka

 

garrincha was far and away the best dribbler ever

 

i don't know about the best, but Alexis Sanchez does some things with the ball that I've never seen before.

 

I can't believe Joaquin Sanchez hasn't been mentioned yet.. This guy absolutely shreds apart defenders. Even though he's inconsistent, which is the reason he isn't known worldwide, when he's on, he's unstoppable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWMpWGXTPdE

What I love about Joaquins dribbling is that it mixes "conventional with unconventional" his moves aren't as flamboyant as say a Cristiano Ronaldo, but his pace and acceleration with the ball are on par with Kaka, and his change of direction is incredible.

It's a shame he doesn't get that much recognition. Watch what he does to the defender at 1:53 in the video

 

he's incredibly talented but like you said too inconsistent

 

Best dribbler all time
1. Garrincha
2. Maradona
3. Messi
4. Pele
5. Ronaldo Nazario
6. Best
7. Jairzinho
8. Matthews
9. Ronaldinho
10. Zidane
Others: Tostao, Sivori, Baggio, Neymar, Houseman, etc.

 

Speed dribbling = Messi
Dribbling in general = Garrincha
Dribbling skillfully/Flashy = Ronaldinho

 

More effective dribbling: Pele