8 players who never use their weaker foot

Captain Obvious alert: football is a game played by the feet. It’s the legs that do the magic that mesmerise so many people. While some players are adept at the wizardry of using both their feet, some others are so one-footed that they wouldn’t use it even if their lives depend on it.While a player like Santi Cazorla has been in the game for over a decade now – fans still can’t make out which foot is his stronger one – there are some players who make the fans believe that their weaker foot is only there for running and balancing purposes.Before starting the list, let it be clear that it includes players that are extremely one-footed. Even though Lionel Messi and Gareth Bale have been labelled one-footed players, they have scored some genuinely good goals using their weaker foot and are quite good at using them once in a while; hence they have been excluded from this list.

#1 Angel Di Maria

Angel Di Maria is so one-footed that he prefers to execute a rabona with his left foot instead of making a simple right-footed cross – and that is because he is more comfortable with the former than with the latter.

The Argentine forward is one of the best players in the world and he was tactically the most influential player in Real Madrid’s best season post-del Bosque. And almost every moment of brilliance was the child of that glorious left foot.

However, the problem with being so one footed is that when he is played on the right, he gets cramped for space and hence his movements become very predictable. When played in the middle, he has a lot of space on the left to run in and get out of trouble. On the wings, that is not an option.

#2 Fabio Coentrao

Another highly one-footed player. Oddly, he is also one of the very few left-footed left-backs in the world that can play as a right-back. So his one-footedness is quite strange given his versatility.

If one has watched Real Madrid games over a prolonged period of time, that person will instantly see the difference between Marcelo and the Portuguese full-back when it comes to the usage of the weaker foot. Where Marcelo isn’t shy to use his right occasionally, Coentrao would rather run outside of his marker and keep running until the ball either goes out or he gets himself the space to cross with his left foot.

There are quite a few Madrid fans who compare his right foot to a stone for its high immobility. And they are not wrong to do so.

#3 Phillipe Coutinho

This one’s a rarity. Extremely one-footed players, that are lefties, are found in abundance like sand in a desert. However, when it comes to extremely right-footed players, they are found as seldom as water in the middle of a desert.

And Phillipe Coutinho is that rarely found oasis.

After having a somewhat erratic start at Liverpool, he has finally found his feet and that has helped in Liverpool’s resurgence. He is now their key playmaker and it is that magnificent right foot that has been the architect of many goals scored by the Merseyside club, not to mention the long range shots that invariably find the back of the net.

However, his left-foot is really weak and it sometimes holds him back. As he is a very clever player who doesn’t allow the defender to force him on his wrong foot. He gets away with the one-dimensionality in this regard when he is played in his natural role.

#4 Mesut Ozil

He is fondly called by many of his fans as the Wizard of Oz. After coming out of Schalke’s youth academy and making himself known at the world stage in the 2010 World Cup, the German was quickly snapped up by Real Madrid. His incredible vision coupled with that silky left foot of his made him an assist machine at Madrid.

The fans adored him, but they always had a qualm about his performances in big games and, as you may have guessed by now, his one-footedness. The better teams’ defenders almost always succeeded in stopping him because they forced the ball to his weaker right foot, something he couldn’t use effectively.

It is for this very reason that he never really plays well anywhere apart from his preferred central attacking midfield role even after his move to Arsenal. Nonetheless, in his preferred central role, where it is harder to force the ball to his weaker foot, he remains one of the most lethal providers in the game.

#5 Erik Lamela

Another Argentine and another one who prefers going for the rabona with his left, rather than try his right. And he has also scored some cracking goals doing that.

Learning his trade at River Plate’s fabled academy, he was coveted by many European clubs. However, it was AS Roma who got him in the end and Lamela honed his abilities further there. He was their star man – he used his left foot like a wand, weaving tricks like they were in abundance like salt in the ocean.

All that trickery, however, seems to have faded away since his move to north London. Except for a few sparks here and there, the left foot of Lamela has hypnotised neither the fans nor the defenders. And given that his right foot is virtually non-existent, he needs to start doing something. And quickly.

#6 Antonio Valencia

Antonio Valencia’s inclusion in this list could be seen as absurd given that the other players make him look like a cat among tigers – and, honestly, the topic of this article could have been ‘BEST most one-footed players’ if it weren’t for him. However, because of the lack of one-footed righties and the fact that Coutinho might feel alone, he makes this list.

He is perhaps the most solely right-footed player in the history of the game. Pigs might fly, the sun could rise from the west, and Cristiano Ronaldo might finish a season with fewer than 20 goals. But Valencia will never be seen using his left foot.

When Valencia is one-on-one with a player on the right wing, you know what he is going to do next. You might forget your own name or the birthday of your other half (not recommended), but you will never not know what Valencia does next when he faces an opposition player on the right wing.

#7 Hulk

When one sees Hulk, three things are highly noticeable in the Brazilian: a square jaw-line, the muscular physique and serious one-footedness.

To be absolutely fair here, Hulk is not really that good at using his left-foot either – the only thing he is good at with his left is to shoot the ball with all the strength his behind possesses and hope that it ends up in the goal (which doesn’t happen as the ball finds it was to the moon).

His right foot is so rigid, it seems as though God probably forgot to mix oil while making it. The only reason he has good games is because of the brute strength he possesses – something his former club Zenit St Petersburg also used to their advantage when it came to social media.

#8 Arjen Robben

Perhaps the best one-footed player in the world right now. There was once a time, not so long ago, that that title was held by Angel Di Maria. Now, however, the tides have changed and the colour of it is orange.

It was also not very long ago that Robben was labelled as a talented, but predictable, player. He would cut in from the right wings and try to curl it in from distance. Also, he used to be very injury prone back in those days. So much that fans would get worried even if they saw him sneeze.

However, as the sands of time have flowed, Robben got stronger and he used that predictability to become the most unpredictable right forward in the world right now. And if it weren’t for Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, he could as well have won a Ballon d’Or.