Who is The God of Skill in Football?

Just like every other supreme title, title for God of skill also goes to the Argentine forward and current World Cup champion Lionel Messi. Messi is probably the only player in football history to ever be a recipient of seven Ballon d’or awards for being the best footballer a year in his career. He is said to have miraculously effective skills and talent which always lead him to a larger stage or award.

You won’t be surprised to know that his surprisingly fascinating stats have made him the no.1 Footballer in the World. It may not come as a shock to you that he is the holder of 41 trophies (which makes him the only player with most trophies) because he has been ruling world football for almost two decades now. 

He had won every possible football title in his 19-years long career except for one – the World Cup. And now as he is close to the end of his career, he also won the World Cup title with Argentina in Qatar.

Top 5 Gods of dribbling skills

Who is the king of dribbling skills?

When we speak about skills in football, dribbling comes out to be the most important skill required to win over. Lionel Messi is regarded as the king of dribbling skills as well other than just being the god of skill overall. 

Dribbling is more of an art than skill. Coaches and captains rely on their team’s skill system (particularly dribbling) and intrinsic formation to help the team work smoothly and achieve victory over any team against them in a game. 

In order to maintain the smooth running of team play, they are at liberty to use different methods. It could be with either long pass, short pass or running past the opposition. While great passes to run the smooth team play involving many player is what managers look forward to having with their pre-match tactics, they also rely on the team’s best Dribblers to tackle the situation when their ideas don’t work. 

Traits/Characteristics of a Great Dribbler

A great dribbler is very much aware of what action he has to take in order to make his way through opposition. He also knows how to create the gap for his own teammates to score a goal or cause chaos in the opposition and go for the goal himself or attract a foul.

You can easily recognise a great successful dribbler by the way he makes moves in a game. A dribbler can also be regarded as a game changing key who can often end up changing the course of the game. He is difficult to be conquered over as not anyone can defend against him. 

Another significant trait of a successful dribbler is the awareness of utilisation. He always knows how to confuse the opposition team making best use of movements, body feints, ball control, quick change of direction as well as speed. All of these are major components of football and players are required to have a more than sufficient knowledge of them. 

As time is passing by, football is becoming more and more systematic. Managers want to keep the hold of their players and limit their liberty to try new things. It has made dribbling a lost art. 

Lionel Messi – The God of Skill

The Argentine legend is widely regarded as the god of skills, especially dribbling. Apart from this, he is also named as the greatest as well as no.1 footballer on the planet. He is possibly the only player in the entire football history to have such a large number of titles and achievements. The PSG forward is also known for his goal scoring skills holding the record for most goals in La Liga. 

He is a multi-talented player who is brilliant at every face of the sport be it great passing, ball control, speed, ability to change direction quickly or getting assists. But his brilliance in dribbling is most jaw dropping and attention grabbing thing of the match. 

Interestingly, he also holds the record for most trophies in the world followed by Cristiano Ronaldo. He has a total of 41 titles including some of the major club Barcelona titles, ten La Liga titles, seven Ballon d’or awards, six European shoe, four European Championships and some more. 

To mention he has not been incredibly good at ball control but was gifted with this eye opening talent ever since he was little. The most successful PSG athlete is way too good at dribbling, his clips of dribbling in youngest years would assure you of that. 

Even now some of his best dribbling clips from the time when he was involved with youth Barcelona still go viral. After years have passed, there is no change in his dribbling style and moves and maybe that’s the key to beating opponents. 

Messi’s Dribbling Stats

Messi’s dribbling stats are as amazing as his personality. He holds the record for most successful dribbles from long distance ever in the entire football history since his debut with Barcelona in 2004. 

Messi has tremendously recorded 2975 dribbles over the course of his entire professional career out of which 2302 in league and the rest of 673 in UEFA Champions League. 

On average, he has recorded 4.65 successful dribbles per 90 minutes while his top rival Cristiano Ronaldo averages only 2.17 successful dribbles per 90 minutes which is half of Messi’s. His dribbling stats reflect that he just doesn’t have a better rate of scoring goals but also dribbling than Ronaldo. 

Continuing his legacy, Messi gave a kick start to his journey with Ligue 1 club Paris Saint Germain (2022/23) by recording an average of 4 successful dribbles per 90 minutes with a success rate of 75%. 

You would be thrilled to know what is the best thing about Messi’s dribbling. It’s his ability to outthink the opposition dribbler. His quick pace, rapid thinking and abilities to quickly change directions are some addition to his mind blowing actions. He is unbelievably fast at making strategies to beat opponents and that gives him power over other great dribblers. 

Despite being one of the smallest athletes on the pitch, Messi possesses an underrated ability to take his opponent defenders down. (Fact: Barcelona funded Messi’s extremely expensive treatment required for his growth to a normal size)

For a Footballer of his size, he possesses the unexpected body strength to put the opponents back in their place by throwing them off their toes while dribbling past them.

Messi is probably one of the only footballers in the entire football history who have registered barely scored goals by Dribbling past four players or maybe even more. Then beating goalkeepers multiple times during his career is another thing he should be appreciated for. Some of these examples are those goals he scored against Getafe in 2007, Athletic Bilbao in 2013 and 15, Real Madrid in 2011, one for Argentina and others. 

Maradona to Neymar, Other Kings of Dribbling

Lionel Messi is apparently the king of dribbling but not the only one. He has a list of successful dribblers following him to become the greatest king of football. Though Messi is the god, there are some other dribblers as well who are listed as the king of dribbling. 

Diego Maradona

Accompanying Messi in the list of kings of dribbling, Diego Maradona has been one of the most successful Argentine footballers in history. His World Cup triumph in 1986 is one of the most memorable moments as he looked invincible and unstoppable during that campaign. 

It’s impossible to remember Diego without mentioning his outrageous goal against England in the 1986 World Cup for Argentina. It won’t come as a surprise to you that the majority of the football fans refer to him as the best ever ball controller in football history. He possessed extremely good ball control skills that he could do keep ups and tricks with the ball even with his laces untied. 

Diego left a legacy behind as he was an expert of controlling the ball. And his performance in the 1986 world cup just made him a hero in everyone’s eyes. Maradona played no less than a hero in that game while rounded off the finish dribbling past four players in order to score what was selected by FIFA as the Goal of the Country. And yes, most importantly he is also said to be one of the greatest footballers in history. 

Neymar Jr

Messi’s former Club Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain’s teammate Neymar has got the title for Best Dribbling after Messi in the current generation. It’s impossible to go through a whole list for any football title and not pass by a single Brazilian. Neymar proves this by making it here. The former PSG forward is known for his exceptional ability to glide on the pitch and execute the most skillful moves with his feet.

Footballers like Neymar are the real charm of a strong and beautiful team. The game they enter automatically gets won. Neymar is also one of the most popular athletes in the world. He has enjoyed a beautiful and successful career in the sport of football. The Brazilian star also holds the title for second highest goal scorer of all time after Ronaldo. The beautifully talented Neymar has won the Champions League, Olympic gold medal with Brazil, La Liga and the FIFA Confederations Cup. 

Ronaldinho

One of the most attention grabbing and entertaining players of his time, Ronaldinho was irresistible to watch when he was formerly playing for Barcelona. You got it right. Barcelona gives rise to the invincible players of all time. Looks like Messi is continuing Ronaldinho’s legacy as the king of football. Ronaldo was anonymously regarded as the king of the world. In every match, he used to come up with something new and marvelous to entertain thousands of his fans at the venue. 

Obviously, he used his all time successful strategy to trick the defenders which is named as ‘Elastico’. By using this trick, he would fool the opponent defenders by throwing the ball sideways but later pull it back some other way. 

The Brazilian player is one of the three footballers of Barcelona including Andres Iniesta and Diego Maradona to ever receive a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabeu during an El Clasico. In November 2005, Ronaldinho scored two memorable and iconic goals in a 3-0 winning game. 

Johan Cruyff

Another former Barcelona player winning the title of king of football. Just like I mentioned, Barcelona has a thing of introducing the kings of football to the world. Johan Cruyff is another one. Cruyff is one of the most interesting and innovative personalities in football history. You would be amazed to know that Johan Cruyff was one of the best players in the 1900s who just didn’t enjoy immense success as a player but also enjoyed a successful career as a manager. He also won the Ballon d’or awards thrice. 

Dribbling was on his top doing list as he was one of the greatest dribblers of his generation with an exceptional ability to work with the ball. The Dutch footballer’ most famous move “Cruyff Turn move” was also named after his most simple but successful move which involved nothing but a great body feint as well as an instant use of the opposite foot to fool the opponent defender. This moment was marked as his simplicity at its best.