Juninho, Ronaldinho, Beckham: Who is the best free-kick taker of all time?

GiveMeSport

·13 October 2021

Juninho, Ronaldinho, Beckham: Who is the best free-kick taker of all time?

There is nothing quite as beautiful as the perfect free-kick is there?

Curled over the wall, dipping into the corner and leaving the goalie absolutely helpless? It doesn't any better.

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Over the years, we have been blessed with some absolutely superb masters of the dead ball who made a business of scoring from set-piece situations.

A reliable free kick merchant can prove to be such a valuable asset for any team and so it is no wonder that that footballers spend hours upon hours doing their craft.

Of late, we have watched as the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Harry Wilson score some absolute bangers, but their exploits simply pale in comparison to the antics of some of the real dons.

Enter Giveaway

You would think that the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi would feature heavily, but, despite their dominance of the game, they don't even crack the top 10.

Messi is beginning to creep up on it but Ronaldo hasn't scored a free-kick in what feels like ages and is unlikely to ever find himself among the elite.

Ronaldo has scored 47 goals from free kicks while Messi has scored 57.

=9. Marcelinho Carioca - 59

=9. Rogerio Ceni - 59

8. Ronald Koeman - 60

=6. Zico - 62

=6. Diego Maradona - 62

5. David Beckham - 65

=3. Ronaldinho - 66

=3. Victor Legrottaglie - 66

2. Pele - 70

1. Juninho Pernambucano - 77

There was only ever going to be one winner, wasn't there?

Juninho absolutely perfected the 'knuckleball technique and scored from dead balls with unerring efficiency.

It simply wasn't an option for defending teams to give away fouls within Juninho's range as, more often than not, he would ruthlessly smack it into the back of the net.

So there you have it - the top 10 greatest free kick takers of all time.

You can imagine that, at some point, Messi will do more than enough to earn a spot in the top 10.

In truth, it's strange to see any sort of football record that neither Messi nor Ronaldo but you can be sure that won't last.

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