Top 10 set-piece takers in Europe

#2 Hakan Calhanoglu

Spain v Turkey - Group D: UEFA Euro 2016 — Calhanoglu has scored some amazing free-kick goals in his career

There are very few players who are known exclusively for their free-kick skills. Legendary Lyon and Brazil star Juninho was one, AC Milan star Hakan Calhanoglu is another. The 23-year-old can almost make the ball listen to his will and is a true master in the art of taking set pieces.

Citing Cristiano Ronaldo and Juninho as inspirations, Calhanoglu has arguably already passed the Portuguese superstar in terms of free-taking abilities. While the Turkish international is a supreme playmaker in his own right, he is almost always only talked about for his excellent set-piece abilities.

Both his club and country’s designated set-piece taker, Calhanoglu is quite clearly one of the best exponents of the dead ball in world football at the moment. Here are his best free-kick goals from the Bundesliga.

AC Milan will be hoping for some special goals from the Turkish playmaker this season.

About the author

A Bengaluru lad through and through, Ashwin Hanagudu is a huge fan of Liverpool and unsurprisingly pledges his sworn allegiance to RCB in the IPL. With over 8+ years of experience in this field, Ashwin manages multiple verticals at Sportskeeda and as of July 2024 is the most-read author in the football section.

Apart from his duties at Sportskeeda, Ashwin Hanagudu is also an active table tennis player and has played multiple state ranking and national tournaments representing Karnataka.

A huge sports fan, some of the athletes and sportspersons he admires in no particular order are Virat Kohli, Steven Gerrard, Mohamed Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo, Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu

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Edited by Ashwin Hanagudu