10 most magically gifted players of all time

Magic: the power of apparently influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. Also see, wonderful; exciting. There are times when you watch football on your telly, or in your neighborhood, or in a stadium and you go “how in the blue hell did he just do that?”. We’ve all been there, and we all remember just what a rush of pure adrenaline it is witness something magical.

There are a special few footballers who have made their living by making crowds, and TV audiences, go “wow” time after time, and here we attempt to pick out ten of the most magically gifted of them all.

Disclaimer – The views expressed are the author’s own

#10 Jay Jay Okocha

”He’ s so good they named him twice” they sang, and for good reason. Bolton had never seen a player quite so gifted – and still, hasn’t. Jay Jay Okocha came from PSG on a free in 2002 and took the Premier League by storm. Loose-limbed and rubbery-boned, the Nigerian left defenders with – to use that classic Alex Ferguson phrase – “twisted blood”.

He rabona-ed pinpoint sixty-yard passes, rainbow-flicked balls over angry Irishmen (read Roy Keane), sat defenders on the ground and raised the hairs on the back of your neck regardless of affiliation. This is not to say he was all style and no substance... he had excellent passing range, unmatched technique (innumerable volleys and freekicks stand evidence of that) and a keen eye for goal.

He may never have won anything of matter – other than the ‘94 AFCON – but sometimes magic doesn’t need the validation of silverware. It simply is.

So forget the fact that we have ignored many more successful players to include him on this list. Just enjoy the magic

#9 Dimitar Berbatov

Dimitar Berbatov played with the kind of lazy elegance that aristocrats sipping on those fancy thin cigarettes and soaking in Luciano Pavarotti whilst clad in the best from Milan’s high street can only dream of. Nonchalant to the point of looking bored, the Bulgarian artist had a touch that inspired its own unique term in football’s rich lexicon – Berberotica.

There’s a great anecdote from the Fulham training ground that shows just how magically gifted he was – Jamie O’Hara kept bombing up the wing from his right back position during training whilst screaming at Berba (who had just arrived at Craven cottage at the time) to pass the ball to him. Every single time he was ignored. A few weeks later, he found himself in a great position on the wing, but seeing that Berba had the ball, chose not scream another futile request and slowed down.

Just as he did that, the ball came in from 60 yards and landed on his boot – everyone was simply stunned by the accuracy of the pass. After training, Berba walks up to O’Hara and goes – "There's no need to shout, I know where you are."

#8 Andres Iniesta

Only three people clad in Barcelona Blaugrana have ever been applauded by the faithful at Real Madrid. As you may have inferred from the fact that I’ve mentioned it here, Iniesta is one of them (the other two come a little later down in the list – #2, and #1, to be specific.

Floating along the ground, the angelic Spaniard has the most amazing dribbling ability – impossible to get the ball off, he uses his underrated acceleration and unmatched footballing brain to find spaces and more importantly to get either himself or the ball into said spaces. His greatest gift is that he appears to be an illusion, an ethereal presence who makes an impact in the most substantial manner on the pitch.

#7 Ronaldo

No, not that one.

Ronaldo Nazario de Lima – it feels strange to have to use his surname to differentiate him for Cristiano, but then again CR7 is such a magnificent player – was the complete striker. He had everything you could ask for. There was the ball control and the impossibly fast feet to pull off those ankle-breaking elasticos and ego-bruising nutmegs, the power to bulldoze his way past defenders, the finishing ability that meant he never missed a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

He was insultingly direct, barreling right at entire defences, throwing them into confusion and slipping through the gaps this created like a thief disappearing into the shadows. His goals were the kind that would have you squealing with delight, the kind of goals that no one else could possibly even have thought of scoring,

And he made it look oh! so easy

#6 George Best

“It used to annoy me when people thought something I did was a fluke! I remember once playing against Ipswich and I scored direct from a corner. Now I used to practice that. I used to be able to stick them in the net direct from the corner spot nine times out of 10.

“Next day in the press they're saying it's a lucky bloody goal. Anyway, about two weeks later we're playing them in the Cup and in the first five minutes, we get a corner. I took it and thought, 'I'll show you another bloody fluke'. It scraped the angle [of bar and post] on the wrong side.

“If it had gone in, I was going to walk up to the press box, bow and walk off the field. ‘Mr George Best, entertainer extraordinaire, has made his point and will now retire’.”

That was what George Best was all about – a brilliant lad who played the beautiful game on a level, and in a manner, few people could comprehend.

Flying across the pitch, nutmegging people for fun, and scoring whenever he damn well pleased. His magical talent continues to enthrall through videos, books, and stories – it doesn’t matter if you never saw the man live, his legend transcends time.

#5 Roberto Baggio

He was called “Il Divin Codino”, but it was not his ponytail that was divine. His boots were filled with a magic that at times escaped description. The pony-tailed Buddhist firecracker was a man who defied the stereotypical, bigoted, view of Italian footballers at the time. Inventive and imaginative, the quintessential trequartista played for a number of clubs and wowed crowds everywhere. He had it all in his armoury, dribbling to match the best of them, unparalleled vision, and a keen, underrated, eye for goal.

He detested the organised ‘catenaccio’ of his times and was a strong advocate of allowing footballers to express their imagination. He once so famously said – “It's better to have ten disorganized players than ten organized runners” – and no one did disorganized magic quite like Robbie Baggio.

#4 Garrincha

As he single-handedly won Brazil the 1962 World Cup, a Chilean newspaper – El Mercurio – carried the headline “What planet is Garrincha from?”. At his best, the bow-legged magician was an other-worldly presence on the pitch who made you go – “what in the... how in the... whaaa...hoo....” *splutter* *splutter*.

And he was fully aware of his capabilities. Once on tour with Brazil, he was playing a friendly against Fiorentina in 1958 as a wee 17-year-old. Having beaten five players in one go on one of his trademark mazy dribbles, he took the ball around the goalkeeper and waited on the goal line. When a defender came charging at him, he nutmegged the poor sod, rounded him for the second time in a matter of seconds before rolling the ball into the net.

This audacity wasn’t reserved for friendlies, either. Playing Spain in the group stages of the ‘62 Cup, Garrincha raced down the right, beating one defender and then paused – when the defender he had beaten charged back to correct his mistake, he beat him again and then delivered a pin point cross for Amarildo to score the winner.

Nobody toyed with defenders quite like he did.

#3 Lionel Messi

What is there to write about the little Argentine that hasn’t been already? How many times do we extol his dribbling ability, his ludicrous ball control and that insane ability to decelerate from 100 to 0 in a heartbeat? How much can we sing paeans to his ability to find any corner of the net from anywhere or his unmatched vision on the ball – which makes the eye of the needle about as big as a barn door?

Enough with that then, pop open a can of whatever it is that gets your juices flowing, and enjoy –

#2 Diego Armando Maradona

Before we start, just watch this –

That’s a man who is one with the football.

This happened in the UEFA Cup when Napoli traveled to Munich. The Germans had hired a ball juggler for some pre-match entertainment and El Diego saw that and went, wait a minute – let me show them what entertainment really is. German, Italian, Argentine.. to a man they couldn’t help but applaud as arguably the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots showed them one eternal truth of life - Football is Maradona. Maradona is Football.

Also, Read: War, Football, and Maradona – the tale of the sport’s two most famous goals

He won World Cups on his own, he rescued clubs and restored pride to entire cities. There has never been a footballer whose passion and pure magical ability gelled together quite like this.

#1 Ronaldinho

Oh, Ronaldinho. The Greatest Player of All Time!

Wait now – down, boy - he wasn’t the Greatest by any conventional definition of the term. He hasn’t won as many trophies as Diego Maradona or Pele, he has never been as consistent as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo and he hasn’t defined an era like Johan Cruyff and Franz Beckenbauer did.

But he did do one thing.

He made us smile, and forget everything else.

You never knew what to expect when he touched the ball, he could score from anywhere – and anyhow (some of his inventive bicycle kicks were otherworldly, and remember that toe punt against Chelsea?) and he could pick you out in any crowd. If he ever played “Where’s Waldo”, the game wouldn’t last longer than a minute. Hell, he could make you go “wow” just by killing a ball dead (sample this –)