many great free kick specialists: Zico, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Rivelino, Zidane, Ronaldinho, C.Ronaldo, Juninho Pernabucano, Pele, Garrincha, Maradona, Marcelinho, Beckham
he is not terrible at all!! and he is here for his distinctive technique like in the goals against france in 1997. regarded by many as the best free kick of all time.
it has to be becks .. through out his career, he had alot of good if not perfect free kicks .. !! so, i would say beckham is the best .. !!! .. cheers
What a total and utter shocker that you would choose Beckham. The world may never recover from this incredible turn of events. Unbelievable.
My honest opinion, which wouldn't be too popular: Kalusha Bwalya. Tremendous freekick specialist. I also think Hristo Stoichkov should at least make the list, as he is better than a lot of the people mentioned above. Pirlo also should have a shout.
Definitely have to agree with the addition of Stoichkov - he was quite the player, too bad his on field talents didn't carry over to his coaching endeavors. After giving this topic some more though, I think Gheorghe Hagi and Ronald Koeman deserve to be included in this discussion of top free kick specialists as well.
yes i agree on Stoichkov and Koeman, but the limit in the poll is 16 options. anyway, everyone can just name the best in their opinion and thats good enough to give a general picture.
Edit- Just saw Ducks post and he mentioned him. Duck is also right about Roberto Carlos. 1 free kick does not make you the best of all time.
Beckham isnt all that compared to some mentioned in the list. Juninhio was quality but I also like Del Piero. And where is Bobby Baggio and Georgie Hagi?
i wanted to include som players of older times, and not just recent ones. all of the above have scored many free kicks at high level and i dont think they are average.
Personally I would remove. Ronaldinhio, Beckham, Caros, Pele, Carlos, Zidane and Rivaldo. They all took a good free kick but the game is littered with less glamourous names who took a much better free kick resulting in more goals.
maybe, but it is very hard to please everyone, and it cant change now, so if it is really the general opinion, it will be portrayed well in the "Other" option. feel free to give facts and opinions on any player you consider a great free kick taker . that is what the thread is for,. the poll is suplementary.
Ronald Koeman (spits) has got to be up there. He scored near 200 goals as a defender from long range shots, free kicks and penalites. Theres not much footage of him around but heres a little complilation of his time at Barca [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glw1la9zaHw"]YouTube- Ronald Koeman Barça compilation[/ame]
Pierre van Hooijdonk. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooUOdDDtsac"]YouTube- Freekick van Hooijdonk[/ame]
Rogerio Ceni vs Chilavert [ame="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1lXLzBxQyM&feature=fvst"]http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1lXLzBxQyM&feature=fvst[/ame]
I think technically Beckham was the best, though there's quite a few players since who've got a simalir level fo technique for scoring goals from deadballs.If anything he was more a pioneer for those kind of technical FKs comapred to the previous generation of specialists like Koeman who were much more about power. Overall best, I'm not sure as there are more prolific FK scorers than Beckham (the real area were Beckham was no.1 was crossing, both from open play and deadballs)l.
Beckham is considered no.1 in crossing partly because thats pretty much the only thing he did when he got the ball in a game. no dribbling skills, no great through balls, no finishing etc. other wingers like Giggs, Garrincha, Matthews, C.Ronaldo, Overmars had more moves to their game and therefore were not as associated with crossing as Beckham.