7 Best Free Kick Takers in Football History

Free kicks are taking after a foul is committed. Most free kicks are taken directly and others indirectly, directly in such a way the shot is directed towards and into the goal without touching any player. The players listed below are the best 7 free kick specialist;

7. David Beckham

He is England’s king of free kicks and few can bend it like him. He is the only English player to win league titles in four countries, England, Spain, the United States and France.

He announced his retirement at the end of the 2012–13 season and on 18 May 2013, he played the final game of his 20-year career. He won 19 major trophies. Renowned for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending free-kicks, he was twice runner-up for FIFA World Player of the Year and in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. No list of free kick takers is complete without him.

6. Gheorghe Hagi

The Maradona of the Carpathians as he if fondly called, one of the few to play for both rivals in Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, winning the super cup for both clubs. He was renowned for his dribbling, technique, vision, passing and finishing. He had a total of 272 goals for both club and country. He won several awards including Player of the Year for his country on seven occasions and an award from UEFA as greatest Romanian Footballer of the last 50 Years in 2003.

5. Diego Maradona

One of the greatest players of his generation, Maradona was also an incredible free kick taker.

In his international career with Argentina, he earned 91 caps and scored 34 goals. Maradona's exceptional vision, passing, ball control, dribbling skills, speed, reflexes and thinking time was combined with his small size (he was 5'5", or 1.65m) giving him a low center of gravity which allowed him to be more maneuverable than most other football players; he would often dribble past multiple opposing players on a run. His great body balance and skill allowed him to float and dip the ball towards rival goals before anyone could realize what happened.

4. Michel Platini

Regarded as one of the best free kick specialists of all time, this French was the top scorer of France with 41 goals from 72 appearances, before being overtaken by Thierry Henry who has 51 goals from 123appearances. He also won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1983, 1984 and 1985. He was a force to reckon with while playing for Juventus as he scored 68 goals with most of them coming from free kicks. One of his spectacular free-kicks was against Netherlands. France won 2-0 and qualifies for the 1982 World Cup.

3. Zico

One notable traits of South Americans are their ability to take good set pieces, Zico is not left out, Zico, one of the greatest players of Brazil made much impact with his set pieces starting from the national team which he scored 48 goals with handful coming from free kicks. His days in his boyhood club Flamengo saw him score 123 goals with majority coming from free kicks. He later travelled to Italy to ply his trade for Udinese, the club did not perform well in the Serie A, but he will definitely be remembered for his amazing free kicks that made him the second highest scorer in the 1983-84 Italian season with 19 goals.

2. Sinisa Mihajlovic

Scoring three goals is a whole lot of job to do; you can ask Ryan Giggs, David Beckham and Andres Iniesta who haven't scored one before. Mihajlovic scored a hat-trick from free kicks in a single match, a feat which is yet to be equaled. Well, many may not have heard of his name because he's a defender, but during the 14 years he spent in Italy playing for clubs like Roma, Sampdoria and Lazio, his free kicks became part of Serie A folklore. He scored 28 goals in Italy from set pieces, a record matched only by Andrea Pirlo. The power, accuracy and swerve of this left-footer made his 25-meter free kicks look like penalties.

1. Juninho

Real name is Antônio Augusto Ribeiro Reis Jr, known as Juninho Pernambucano. According to wikipedia "he is sometimes considered to be the greatest free-kick specialist of all time. Scored 75 goals in his eight year reign with the French club, Lyon, an astonishing 44 were from free kicks. Four of them were from beyond a range of 40 meters, which included 2 from distances of 41 and 48 meters against Barcelona and OGC Nice respectively. Even after he returned to his old club Vasco Da Gama after spending 13 years out of the shores of Brazil, he returned in 2013 and got his free kicks boots on as he scored 32-metre free kick having just clocked 38years old then, he later retired that year though, playing a total of 21games and scoring just twice. In all he scored 76 free-kicks out of 131 goals. He may not be a Pele or a Ronaldinho, but Juninho is next to none when it comes to free kicks. After retirement, Juninho has been a football commentator with Brazilian sports network Rede Globo.

Watch below a list of Juninho's top 10 free kicks

Complied by Adekunle Adewale