5 best free-kick takers in Europe right now
Free-kicks are supposedly the toughest skill to master in football. Players like David Beckham, Michel Platini, Diego Maradona, Ronaldinho, Ronald Koeman, Roberto Carlos, Alessandro del Piero, and Cristiano Ronaldo are some of the greatest free-kick takers of all time. When it comes to the current crop of players, there are quite a few who mastered the art of taking free-kicks.
For this analysis, data from STATS.com since the start of the 2013-14 season is used. This list ranks player from Europe's top five leagues with a minimum of 20 free-kick attempts.
Honourable Mention: Though Lionel Messi has scored 3 free-kicks in 3 consecutive La Liga games during the months of February and March 2018, he is not included here, because, his conversation rate is much less compared to others on this list.
On that note, let’s take a look at the most prolific free-kick takers in European football who has the best conversion rate.
#5 James Rodriguez, Bayern Munich
Attempts: 36, Goals: 6, Conversion rate: 16.67%
The Columbian arrived on the big stage during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where he won the Golden Boot. Though the 26-year-old struggled for form after his move to Real Madrid, his set-piece abilities remained intact. He is currently enjoying a superb run of form in Bayern colours.
He scored a stunning free-kick (inches from the penalty area) against Bayern Leverkusen in January 2018 which was voted the Bundesliga goal of the month for January. The amount of bend and pace he generated from that close to the goal was simply phenomenal.
Since the beginning of 2013/14 campaign, the Columbian international has scored 6 goals with his gifted left-foot from direct free-kicks in 36 attempts, which equates to an excellent conversion rate of 16.67%.