Opinion

The magisterial dribbling skills of players like Neymar, Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria are revered the world over. These players are commonly heralded as masters of the ball, dribbling wizards who require the attention of multiple defenders in order to be stopped or at least contained. 

After any given weekend, social media will be crawling with vines and GIFs of these superstars flat-out embarrassing opposition. Outside of this prevailing common knowledge, who are some of the world’s best dribblers? 

Newcastle United are struggling. They’re struggling for goals, they’re struggling to properly defend for 90 minutes and they’re struggling to get their fanbase behind a team that’s owned by a modern day slave driver and managed by the imprudently jubilant patch of hair that is Steve McClaren.

Francesco Totti’s wife of 10 years, Ilary Blasi, has revealed to an Italian weekly that the great man is preparing to announce his retirement from football after 24 illustrious seasons with A.S. Roma. 

Goddammit. 

With Totti turning 40 next year, and having been sidelined by injuries throughout much of 2015, Blasi is quoted as saying, "...right now he is desiring something else."

As fans of soccer, we appreciate the theater, drama and storylines that call us to develop personal opinions. The game is as much about heroes and tribes as it is about common enemies and villains. There are some things we all love to hate. If you can’t admit that, well, you’re just afraid of your own primal instincts.

Let’s get this out of the way: there was absolutely nothing Tim Howard could do about this second goal from Stoke City’s Xherdan Shaqiri on Monday. The ball over the top is sublime and Shaqiri’s first touch is even more sensational, lobbing the ball over Howard and into the top corner with zero hesitancy.

The past was always better. That seems to sum up Pelé’s vision of modern soccer. He said that nowadays he would be a much better player than he was in his day because there is more preparation and care for footballers.

If you're left-footed, you know that you've been gifted with both a blessing and a curse. Typically, you're an oddity on the team, alone in your preference for the left foot. Left-handers make up only 10% of the general population, and only half of southpaws are also left-footed. Our numbers may be small, but we are incomparably strong. We've got Messi.

5 Truths That All Left-Footed Players Will Understand

#1: You’re the first name on the team sheet 

Cesc Fabregas has crossed seas, leaving the cities of his formative years, Barcelona and London, only to return, oscillating between ensconced locales in search of a happiness that can only be provided by fulfilling an unobtainable ambition. 

The opening of the January transfer window provides MLS-based players an opportunity to test themselves in the top European leagues, if only for two-months on a loan deal. For the sake of the United States national team, these loan deals are instrumental in providing American players an opportunity to progress. 

After Manchester United’s dismal Champions League elimination at the hands of Wolfsburg this week, Manchester United fans from around the world must have looked at each other and said: “What the hell just happened here?”

All the promise going into this season has disappeared. United’s inability to put together a cohesive and effective attack has lead to their early Champions League exit, and all the people who were excited about the madman master Van Gaal last season are just about ready to call for his head.