So Who is the Free Kick Master?

By: Daryl | September 15th, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifIJ0DWq2LQ

Have you ever heard of the Free Kick Masters competition? I hadn’t, but now I have I’m all excited. It’s basically a big free kick competition with big name players taking direct free kicks at big name goalkeepers from varying distances and angles and score points accordingly. It’s not in any way an official FIFA tournament, which means Sepp Blatter hasn’t got any of his fat fingers in the pie. And the best thing is that even though it takes place in December, in the middle of the European season, it will feature a host of top talent. The 2007 event was announced with the signing of the one and only Ronaldinho (2006 free kick vs Zaragoza above) and the rest of the lineup is equally impressive.

Taking the free kicks will be:
Ronaldinho Gaucho
Rafael Márquez
Lionel Messi
Alessandro Del Piero
Deco
Luis Figo
Alvaro Recoba
Bernd Schneider
David Villa
Jay Jay Okocha
Franklin Salas
Subait Khater Fayel
Sun Xiang Sun Ji

And in goal will be:
Kasey Keller
Vojislav Dragovic
Oliver Kahn
Francesco Toldo
Santiago Canizares

Could be worse, eh? The event takes place December 22nd at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.

Seems odd that such big name players would take time out from their schedule (or from their winter break) to fly to Texas and take free kicks. My guess is that the event organizers are paying these guys small fortunes in appearance fees. Certainly Ronaldinho looks pleased with the contract he’s signing here.

Is it petty that even with such an array of talent on display, I’m a little disappointed that Juninho Pernambucano and David Beckham won’t feature. The former is deadly from set pieces, while the latter could probably use the practice. Anyone else you’d like to see there?

But even with Ronaldinho, Messi, Deco, Figo et al competing, don’t count out the guys you’ve never heard of. The last event in 2004 featured Monsieur Zinedine Zidane. But the great man finished fifth, with Heerenveen’s Ugur Yildirim taking first place.

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Category: World Football

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great

that list really sucks,no juninho not even van hooijdonk or becham.
frank

Agreed.
Without Nakamura and Juninho, the winner is not gonna be a real free kink master.
Bruno Romani

Ceni, for sure
Bufo

They should invite Rogerio Ceni because is a rare opportunity to have a player who could play well on both sides (Free Kick taker and goalkeeper). Since the Brazilian Championship ends December 2nd and this event takes place December 22nd, he will be on vacation and would happily accept this chalenge. Maybe is not fair for other players if could play both sides, so he could only play goalkeeper since he's having a poor year as a free kicker (only 1 goal in 2007, against 5 in 2006 and 11 in 2005!). But if his goals are getting scarce, on the other side he don't concede a free kick goal for more than 2 years, with beautiful defenses like the Gerrard's free kick in FIFA Club World Championship 2005 final.
Pedro P

Simao, C Ronaldo or even Quaresma are ten times better than Deco. Although he's not bad... Simao's goal against Servia (click the little camera to see the highlight)... http://www.uefa.com/competitio...
Ian

Yeah, without any of the top free kickers in the world, this is a bit empty. Ronaldinho's great, but he's hardly a free kick specialist. Nakamura, Pirlo, Juninho, even Steven Gerrard - all are better free kickers than most of this list. That said, maybe if this competition sticks around, it will eventually get better and include the best. Also, I'd like to see Pepe Reina and Cech in goal, but then again, I'm not paying their way to a new event in the middle of a season.
matt

they left out pirlo too. bs.
Liam

It isn't really that great a competition when you consider that they've left out Juninho and Nakamura - the two best freekick takers in the world IMO
Tony

Tottigol has been known to score from a DFK or two in his illustrious Giallorossi career.
Nik

Love to see Nakamura from Celtic in the tournament as well.