5 players with a magnetic first touch

#3 Dimitar Berbatov

How many players are there in the world who can stop a cross-field lobbed ball dead at their feet? Probably quite a few. How many of them can do this on a regular basis with an unperturbed look etched on their face? Only Dimitar Berbatov.

Currently a Free agent, Dimitar Berbatov wowed the Premier League crowd on a weekly basis, playing some aesthetic football at his own pace. Although he had a tendency to go missing when things are not quite going his way and isn’t quite adaptable to the high pressing game currently used by most of the European elites, these negatives cannot take anything from his technical brilliance, chief among them being a magnetic first touch.

Our man here has a velvety first touch and can control all types of passes sent to him, whether it is a cross-field pass or a simple ten-yard pass, he, like an effortless virtuoso stops the ball so well, it appears as if it had been placed there by hands.

See him as you want: an underachiever or an effortless genius. You simply cannot deny that had ‘ controlling the ball’ been a separate sport, this prodigal Bulgarian would have won a few Ballon D’ors in it.