Best Dribblers in World Football

Zehner said:
Midfield dribblers/pressing resustance

Modric
Bernardo Silva
Thiago
Arthur
David Silva
Isco
Verratti
de Jong
Gündogan
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This midfield definitely favours the little techno midgets. Pogba is a great dribbler for example.
 
Casanova85 said:
The very best: Di Stéfano, Pelé, George Best, Cruyff, Maradona, Romário, Ronaldo, Figo, CR, Messi.
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Missing Garrincha and if we're just talking purely dribbling ability then maybe it's a toss up between him and Best.
 
Whiskey Red said:
Missing Garrincha and if we're just talking purely dribbling ability then maybe it's a toss up between him and Best.
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Messi surely. No fancy skills no kicking the ball 10 yards in front anf chasing a la bale. 10 plus years of consistently getting past people purely dribbling with the ball glued at his feet.
 
I read the thread title and said, ‘one sexy man must have created this thread’.
2017 - the good old days.
 
Pow said:
Messi surely. No fancy skills no kicking the ball 10 yards in front anf chasing a la bale. 10 plus years of consistently getting past people purely dribbling with the ball glued at his feet.
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No doubt messi is a fantastic dribbler, one of the greatest, and as a combined player he better than best or garrincha but just dribbling? Those two were uncanny in their ability to go past players and stay on their feet. They were also both alcoholics
 
Whiskey Red said:
No doubt messi is a fantastic dribbler, one of the greatest, and as a combined player he better than best or garrincha but just dribbling? Those two were uncanny in their ability to go past players and stay on their feet. They were also both alcoholics
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Thats the point. Messi gets past super athletes now and makes them look poor and slow. What messi has been doing for the past decade is unreal. The level of fitness and defending from back then to know is stark.
 
Right now : Neymar, Hazard, Messi

Up and coming : Neres, Dembele, Plusic

All time : Garrincha, Figo, R9, Messi, Ronaldinho
 
WR10 said:
He’s actually quite poor. It’s the reason why you see him 80% of the time shielding the ball with the defender sitting on his back in possession. He has fancy flicks and long strides here and there but definitely not a ‘dribbler’ that can keep himself off contact
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Quite poor? I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one.
 
Here's some I always thought were good:
Roberto Baggio
Gazza
Le Tissier
Laudrup brothers
John Barnes
Jimmy Johnstone
Zola
Bergkamp
 
Hazard
Messi
Pogba
Neymar

crazy that there are no mentions of Zaha.

He loses the ball alot but will still roast a defender 3 or more times a game. Often from standing start.
 
All time: Messi, Maradona, Garrincha, Best

Now: Messi, Hazard, Neymar, Dembele

Future: Phil Foden (Best English talent - wish he played for the red side!), Vinicius Jr, Jadon Sancho
 
Pow said:
Thats the point. Messi gets past super athletes now and makes them look poor and slow. What messi has been doing for the past decade is unreal. The level of fitness and defending from back then to know is stark.
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Different things to contend with. Pitches in the past were nowhere near as good as now, not even being completely flat. Football was far more physical back then, a lot of challenges would be considered fouls nowadays. The ball itself was made of pigskin, so it was far heavier than it is now.

If Messi was playing in the past, he would probably just be dragged down to the floor. Does he have the toughness to deal with how football was back then? I doubt it because he hasn't been brought up in that footballing environment. He has been taught to go down as he knows he will get a freekick, which wasn't such a guarantee in the past.

I think it is impossible to compare. The game now is massively different to what it was in the past.
 
Untd55 said:
Different things to contend with. Pitches in the past were nowhere near as good as now, not even being completely flat. Football was far more physical back then, a lot of challenges would be considered fouls nowadays. The ball itself was made of pigskin, so it was far heavier than it is now.

If Messi was playing in the past, he would probably just be dragged down to the floor. Does he have the toughness to deal with how football was back then? I doubt it because he hasn't been brought up in that footballing environment. He has been taught to go down as he knows he will get a freekick, which wasn't such a guarantee in the past.

I think it is impossible to compare. The game now is massively different to what it was in the past.
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Messi has grown up in Argentina and the pitches there were far from the snooker tables you see these days. There are plenty of videos out there showing Messi taking the piss out of players on some potato fields. Sure he played against kids, but the level of ball control was still what we are seeing today despite the ball bouncing every which way. I have no douts that he would be embarrassing dudes even if he would have played in that era because the ball would still be glued to his feet.

I'm sorry, but the remark about Messi being taught to go down for freekicks and that he wouldn't live with the defenders of that era, couldn't be more wrong. Messi, for the most part, stays on his feet even after getting the hell kicked out of him. You see him being tugged down by his shirt, you see him getting "hugged", getting his legs swept from under him and he will still have his eyes focused on the ball trying to get up and continue the play. There have been numerous instances when, in the box, despite being fouled, he has continued the action and failed to score.

He has the perfect build and technique to ride the tackles just like Garrincha, Best, Maradona etc. did in their hey days and that's why he has escaped serious injuries so far, because he has been kicked day in day out for the past 10+ years and he only had some problems on 2 or 3 occasions. Once Uijfalusi caught him with his foot planted and fecked up his ankle and twice he bumped knees and was out for 2 months each time but nothing more serious.

A good article on Messi's stubborness to go down is Hernan's Casciari: "Messi is a dog"

https://medium.com/@casciari/messi-is-a-dog-18b8f32766c8
 
It's amazing how much Ozil and Sanchez have regressed in their dribbling. Ozil was a really good dribbler in Madrid, while Sanchez was a fantastic dribbler for almost his entire career before 2018.
 
Ben Arfa gets passed players so effortlessly.

 
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