Just based on Highlights Reels every time Zidane touches the Ball it looks like Art for me. For me he looks technically the most Impressive but it's a pretty superficial observation
No I agree !!! I recall watching Patrick Vierra and Petite talking on telly saying that he does things in training and in games that shouldn’t even be possible !! And they were great players themselves
Zidane was the most fluid player ever. Fluid. Perfectly ambidextrous. Maradona is likely the most technically proficient. There is nothing he could not do with the ball.
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone with Zidane’s natural ability and first touch/ skill .. and I’ve been watching since the late 60’s Maybe Glen Hoddle could run him close .. another guy with an amazing first touch and who was 100% ambidextrous Hoddle is easily the best passer of a ball I’ve seen … with either foot .. He had a pass .. for the left winger .. where he’d pick the right moment and then passed a fairly long , slightly diagonal ball with backspin … so when the winger sprinted forward down the line.. the ball was practically waiting for him and even rolling back slightly.. Hope I’ve explained it adequately .. I’m not great with words ..
Yep, that puts it well. Answering the OP question head on, it would be Maradona all time for me, Messi among the current crop (and close to Diego anyway). Not the most surprising picks, but what can you do.
Messi is a master at the outside cut. He has different variations: The scoop. 3:08 He has another one I can't find right now where he slaps the top of the ball to make it bounce on a cut. There is an attention to detail
It depends what you define as the most technically gifted. Could Maradona, Ronaldinho, Zidane and Messi strike a ball as cleanly as Trezeguet?
@TitoTata 10:05 The first pass is an example of what you're talking about. The next pass to Henry vs China is absolutely bonkers. I have rarely if ever witnessed this sort of long ball technique.
There’s just so many aspects to this, and I think the answer is very different for different aspects. Like, one aspect of technique is close control at speed. A related one is close control not at speed but in tight spaces. Then there’s shooting technique. There’s technique in first touch. There’s passing technique too. I think who is the best is different depending on what you look at (with only the first two areas really being similar enough that one’s list might be similar). Like, for instance, if you ask me about close control at speed, I think the answer for best ever is Messi. But if you ask me about best ever first touch, I definitely don’t think it’s Messi (not that he’s bad, but I think he’s definitely a tier below the best ever in that regard). Shooting technique wouldn’t be Messi either (Messi’s thing is more just sheer accuracy than shooting “technique” IMO—I guess they’re related concepts but I don’t think of them as quite the same), and it surely wouldn’t be one of the guys I’d put at the top in first touch. Etc. In an overall sense, I guess Maradona may be the best example of someone who is incredibly good at most or all of these things. Dunno that he’s quite got top-tier all-time shooting technique, but the overall technique package is probably best with him. He’s not necessarily the best at any individual aspect of it though, so you could get to other answers if your definition of “technique” focuses more on one specific aspect.
Had that too, he had everything. A few of these should qualify: (Hand of God at #3 ) Messi only just surpassed his career free kick tally, Cristiano is still 2 goals short of him - provided the widespread numbers are correct, which I can't say with certainty: (Not every clip seems legit, but the gist is clear)
Yeah, I guess this doesn’t really change my mind on that. He’s definitely got a lot of inventive goals, so shooting technique isn’t a deficiency and that lack of any deficiency is part of why I said I think he’s the top guy overall in terms of technique. But I don’t think he’s top-tier all time in shooting technique. To me, a top-tier all-time shooting technique guy needs to also be able to strike the ball tremendously hard while keeping the ball down. Technique-wise that’s extremely difficult to do, because, if you kick the ball with you a lot of power, you need to kick the ball in just the right spot and/or put tons of topspin on it to not have it sky way too high. I don’t really see Maradona having done that much. He’s got great technique on things like chip goals and stuff and his free kick ability does show he can put a lot of spin on the ball. So that’s definitely great. But I just don’t see him as a top-tier all-time striker of the ball, because I don’t quite see the technique to hit with massive power while keeping the ball down. So, like, as an example, I’d say that in his early prime, Cristiano Ronaldo had better shooting technique than Maradona.
Yeah, no. I'm not sure any player in history could replicate this: This is post-retirement btw! In the same video, Zidane describes seeing Maradona chest and hit the ball against the crossbar and allowing it to bounce back to chest then hit back to crossbar in many successions. No video evidence sadly.
That’s shooting accuracy though, which I conceptualize as being a separate thing from shooting technique. It’s all related of course, but I personally put that in a different bucket. My concept of shooting technique is that it’s largely about being able to manipulate the flight of the ball with spin (or even complete lack of spin—i.e. knuckleballs), including doing so while hitting with power (which is more difficult to do). In other words, I see it as being about striking the ball in a certain way so as to manipulate and control the ball’s trajectory, and I think the very best ones can manipulate ball trajectory while simultaneous striking with major power. Obviously, given his free kick prowess, Maradona was great at shooting technique, and he’s also got a bag of tricks with things like chips and whatnot that require shooting technique to pull off. But I’ve just not seen him show this sort of striking with power, which I think would leave him out of the top tier all time in this regard.
The thing about Messi and his free kicks is that he’s been getting better and better each season .. practically the polar opposite to Cronaldo who’s been loosing his power ( and pace ) gradually over time
A very technical player, not so remembered, was Paulo Roberto Falcão from Brazil 82 national team. Falcão was twice chosen as the best player in the Brazilian championship (1978 and 1979) and once as the best in serie a (1983) by Guerrin Sportivo. The colombian Radamel Falcão got his baptismal name in honor of him. Falcao was a tall midfielder (1.83 m), thin, very technical and with excellent ball control and short passing. An elegant style like Zidane and Iniesta
Maradona had very good shooting technique but nowhere the likes of Pele, Van Basten, Papin, Batistuta, Crespo, Trezeguet, Van Nistelrooy, Ibrahimovic, Van Persie, Di Natale, Quagliarella, Mancini