The 10 footballers currently playing who you would most want to take a direct free-kick for your team.
10. Luis Suarez
Club: Liverpool
Nationality: Uruguayan
Age: 27
Striking foot: right
Suarez is one of three South Americans on this list.
Club: Everton
Nationality: English
Age: 29
Striking foot: left
England have lacked quality left-sided attackers for many years and, although Baines is a left-back, he is excellent going forward and perfect for the free-kicks that Steven Gerrard doesn’t fancy.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Club: Liverpool
Nationality: English
Age: 33
Striking foot: right
Captain for club and country, nobody outranks Gerrard. If he wants to take a free-kick, it is his, which is fair enough because he is a creator of set-piece magic.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Club: Real Madrid
Nationality: Welsh
Age: 24
Striking foot: left
Bale has been banging in long-range free-kicks since he was a schoolboy taking the Championship by storm at Southampton.
Club: Roma
Nationality: Italian
Age: 37
Striking foot: right
Totti is the oldest player on the list, but, although he may have lost a lot of his pace, his free-kicks are as good as ever.
Club: Juventus
Nationality: Italian
Striking foot: right
Age: 35
Pirlo is an incredible ball-bender.
Club: Manchester City
Nationality: Ivorian
Age: 31
Striking foot: right
Yaya was City’s leading scorer last season, with 20 league goals, including a handful of powerful free-kicks.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
Exhibit C:
Club: Atletico Mineiro
Nationality: Brazilian
Striking foot: right
Age: 34
It was not a cross, stop it.
Club: Barcelona
Nationality: Argentine
Striking foot: left
Age: 26
Some people will argue that Neymar should be on this list. FYI, he was number 11! The Brazilan is a good free-kick taker, but he doesn’t get at sniff at Barca because Mr Messi is on another level.
Club: Real Madrid
Nationality: Portuguese
Striking foot: right
Age: 29
No words are needed…