10 Greatest Signature Moves In Football History Pt. 2

One of the biggest honours in football is having a particular skill named after you. Just ask Johan Cruyff with the Cruyff Turn. Here are some of the greatest signature moves of all time and how they were born. Cristiano Ronaldo, the knuckleball. The date was January 30th 2008. Manchester United needed to beat Portsmouth to go top of the Premier League. In front of 75,000 fans at Old Trafford, Cristiano Ronaldo did something extraordinary. United were awarded a free kick 30 yards out. Ronaldo placed the ball down and took four big steps backwards. He stood with his feet apart and measured the angles in his head like a Harvard mathematician. After a few deep breaths, he stepped up and hammered the ball into the top corner. The knuckleball free kick was born. Ronaldo's used the technique countless times since then. He's able to generate incredible movement on the ball, which dips and changes direction in the air. It's a nightmare for keepers to deal with. Ronaldo doesn't have the best free kick record in the world, but he pioneered the knuckleball technique and he'll always be associated with it. Mesut Ozil, the bounce shot. A good magician never reveals his secrets, and just like David Blaine or David Copperfield's top tricks, no one could work out how Mesut Ozil defied the laws of physics with his signature move. At first, everyone assumed the bounce shot was a fluke. Then Ozil did it again and again and again. In 2017, it started getting attention. After Ozil scored with a bounce shot against Liverpool, he deliberately kicked the ball into the ground to lift it over the keeper. The commentators thought it was a mishit, but after multiple replays, it was clear the playmaker actually meant it. I knew the goalkeeper would jump again. They don't expect this kind of trick. Once people realised Ozil was doing the bounce shot on purpose, they went back through his career to find earlier examples. It turns out he also did it at Real Madrid and even for Germany. Lionel Messi, the body feint. After watching a young Lionel Messi's dazzling skills in a trial game, Barcelona did something unprecedented to make sure he signed for them. Ever since he was a young kid, Messi's looked like a natural on the football pitch. His technical ability, agility and balance allow him to dribble in and out of defenders like they're not even there. Messi can even beat opponents without touching the ball. Over the years, he's perfected the art of the body feint. When he's running at full speed, it's almost impossible to stop Messi. He can get out of the tightest areas with a dip of the shoulder or a shake of the hips. Most defenders can't match Messi's balance. Sometimes it all gets too much and they end up on their backsides. No wonder Barcelona were so keen to sign him up at the age of 13. Carlos Rejac, the director of football, didn't have any paper to hand, so he drew up a contract for Messi on a paper napkin instead. Aidan McGeady, the McGeady Spin Aidan McGeady's name isn't mentioned alongside Zinedine Zidane's too often, but you'll soon find out why we really can make a comparison between the pair. McGeady's an Irish winger who's played for Celtic, Everton and Sunderland. He's a skilful two-footed dribbler who loves running at opposition defenders. Now, McGeady might not be a world-class player, but he is a footballing innovator. He invented the McGeady Spin and has used it to bemuse full-backs since the start of his career. The move looks a bit like Zidane's famous roulette, but the skill is slightly different. McGeady first performs a Cruyff turn with his right foot, then knocks the ball away with the outside of his left foot. In 2004, McGeady pulled it off for the first time in front of a huge crowd as Celtic faced Aberdeen. Other players have tried to use the trick, but McGeady remains the master. Ronaldo Stepovers At the 1994 World Cup, Brazil's winning squad contained a guy called Ronaldinho, even though the future Barcelona great was only 14. That's because the man who later became known as Ronaldo, or R9, had a different name back then. Brazil already had a Ronaldo in their squad back then, so O Fenomeno went by the name Ronaldinho instead. Ah, whatever he was called. The striker was a magnificent talent, even as a teenager. He had pace and power to burn, but he was also extremely skillful and a tremendous dribbler. His favorite move was the stepover. Not one, but multiple. Ronaldo used to drop several stepovers in quick succession, making it impossible for defenders to work out which way he wanted to go. No one was safe. Ronaldo dropped his signature move throughout his career, from Barcelona to Real Madrid and PSV to Inter. His favorite trick was so well known that, ahead of the 1998 World Cup final, France put on a special training session to try and stop him from doing it. Arjen Robben The Cut Inside When he was a youngster, Arjen Robben was given a nickname that he truly hated. For the rest of his career, he always remembered what his doubters had called him. Despite those critics, Robben became one of the best players of his generation. He's a Bayern Munich legend who's won eight Bundesliga titles and the Champions League at the Allianz Arena. Robben scored 209 goals in 614 games for his various clubs. He also found the net 37 times for the Netherlands. Not bad for a player who was once called Man of Glass because of his injury problems. Dozens of Robben's career goals were scored in a similar way. He played on the right wing, but used every possible opportunity to cut onto his left foot and shoot at goal. It was a simple but stunningly effective move. Defenders knew what Robben wanted to do, but they just couldn't stop him. You know, it's kind of like Bruce Lee once said, I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I do fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. Zlatan Ibrahimović The Overhead Kick Zlatan Ibrahimović has scored some spectacular goals during his career, and the Swede has a secret weapon that's helped him to do it. Zlatan is 6 foot 5 inches tall, but he has the agility of a diminutive winger. Without it, he wouldn't have been able to score so many amazing acrobatic goals. The most famous example was his astonishing 30-yard overhead kick against England. No one on the pitch or in the stands could believe what they'd witnessed. It wasn't a one-off. In 2019, Ibrahimović set himself up for a brilliant bicycle kick while playing for LA Galaxy. For PSG against Bastion, Zlatan sent the crowd wild with an unbelievable scorpion kick goal. His secret weapon? Zlatan's a black belt in Taekwondo, which helps him contort his body into difficult positions to score such sublime goals. Neymar The Backheel Touch Neymar has played for two of Europe's biggest clubs in Barcelona and PSG. Back in 2010, he almost joined an English side, and it's not who you'd expect. It would have been fascinating to see Neymar in the Premier League. The Brazilian's a natural entertainer, with a bucketload of tricks. Could he have adapted to the physicality of the English game? Unfortunately, we'll probably never find out. But West Ham must wish their £12 million bid for Neymar had been accepted by Santos. Neymar's got plenty of skills in his locker. One of his favourites is his backheel first touch. To control a long pass, Neymar jumps into the air, wraps one leg around the other, and brings the ball under his spell with his backheel. He usually then breaks into a sprint, running directly at his marker and looking to make something happen. Sergio Busquets The Drag Back It took a while for some football fans to be won over by Sergio Busquets. But Lionel Messi saw his talent immediately, and the four little words he said to Pep Guardiola prove it. In his early years, people claimed Busquets was made to look good by teammates like Xavi Hernandez and Andre Iniesta. But as time went on, Busquets started to get the credit he deserved. Despite not being particularly mobile or tough tackling, he established himself as one of the best holding midfielders in the world. Busquets is a pass master who knows how to evade pressure in midfield. Honestly, sometimes there's no point closing down Busquets because he's gonna get away from you. His signature move is the drag back. Busquets opens up his body, rolls his studs over the ball, and then pushes it in another direction with his instep. It's a move which buys him time and space in the most crowded area of the pitch. It looks like Messi was right. After watching Busquets train with the first team for the first time, Lionel turned to Guardiola and said, I like this one. JJ Acotia The Reverse Stepover Now imagine what it would have been like to be idolised by Ronaldinho in his younger years. He'd have to have been a very special footballer to earn the admiration of one of the most skilful players that ever lived. And the man who popularised the reverse stepover definitely was special. Before his time at Bolton in the Premier League, JJ Acotia played alongside Ronaldinho at PSG. You've got to sympathise with the defenders who tried to stop these two. Acotia's favourite move involved rolling his studs over the ball with his right foot, then stepping over it with his left. Opponents didn't know how to stop it. It left them off balance and allowed the Nigerian to create an extra yard of space. JJ Acotia. So good, they named him twice.