5 football superstars who show their cheeky sides quite often

Admit it! We all love that one player in the team who goes about the game doing cheeky stuff with the ball and off it, sending opposition players fuming and the audiences chuckling. At the end of the day, a game of football is meant to be as entertaining as it is meant to be result oriented. Audiences look out for players who do the extraordinary but worship the ones who do the extraordinary with swagger and make it look like another day at the office.Here’s a look at 5 players whose regular cheek on the ball can leave you chuckling all through a game.

#1 Luis Suarez

Luis Suarez wears his emotions on his sleeves.

By now, Luis Suarez has already established himself firmly as one of the top players on the planet. Having scored 37 times in 38 games this season with a further 14 assists, the Uruguayan has become the epitome of consistent performances filled with drive and desire. However, to the football fan who hasn’t watched him closely, the impudence and childish buzz of his overall game remains an unknown. Can anyone see him spend a game without having tried and pulled off a nutmeg or four? No, that doesn’t seem likely.

From nutmegging defenders at will and sending players the wrong way with a dribble to trying a shot at goal from 50 yards and succeeding, Luis Suarez will not have one game where he isn’t trying something cheeky. The man who plays like a child possessed on the field gives audiences many a laugh and draws many gasps from defenders and spectators alike. His cheekiness can mark him out as a goalkeepers’ and defenders’ nightmare; the sort that plays you twice in a season and haunts you for the rest of it, just ask Norwich City from a couple of seasons ago.

#2 Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Zlatan Ibrahimovic can turn it on in the press conferences as well.

Can you really describe Zlatan with words? In every generation, there is a player who simply blows you away with his sheer swagger. Zlatan doesn’t really stand for the ordinary. Be it a bicycle kick or a 20 yard lob over a keeper just slightly off his line or a mix of both (his bicycle kick lob over Joe Hart from 30 yards must be still giving the England defense nightmares) or an audacious heel flick at goal, Zlatan has a highlight reel of footballing moments that sends audiences into fits of admiration that only he can draw out.

But it isn’t just on field that he delves into his brand of histrionic. Every Zlatan sound byte is pure gold for the member of the football community who enjoys a cheeky line or two. Here’s one that drives the point across: “Arsene Wenger asked me to have a trial with Arsenal when I was 17. I turned it down. Zlatan doesn’t do auditions.

#3 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is as passionate as it gets.

Can you really complete this list without him? Cristiano Ronaldo is a joy to watch; he can dribble past people like they didn’t even exist but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t enjoy a cheeky nutmeg or two. If you zoom the camera to his face, you can almost see him grin at times when he drags the ball in three different directions with the defender reacting to it quite late and finally puts the defender out of his misery by taking the ball past him.

Cristiano is no stranger to fancy flicks and lobs and a sly feint. Nor is he shy from trying the audacious. But sometimes all he wants to do is to toy with the defenders a bit to give the Madrid faithful something to chuckle about.

#4 Neymar

Neymar always has been a show-off regarding his skills

It is great to see a player who enjoys his football and Neymar is just that. The Barcelona forward is the next in a generation of a long line of Brazilian forwards who completely enjoy their 90 minutes in a game. Neymar caused quite a stir with the ridiculous sum of money Barcelona paid for a teenager from the Brazilian league after their purported disaster with Keirrison just a few years ago.

In hindsight, every penny seems to be now worth the investment. Always on the lookout for a chance to Rainbow Flick his opponent out of the game or nutmeg just like his Barca team-mate Luis Suarez. Give him a chance to take a penalty and you’re almost sure that he will try something cheeky out of it. Many a defender consider him their worst nightmare, not just for his ability to beat them but utterly humiliate them with his cheeky approach to beating them. The young Brazilian is a joy to watch and you cannot help but feel that his cheekiest is yet to come as he develops in the coming years. For the La Liga defenders that can only spell more trouble.

#5 Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi never forgets to enjoy the game he plays.

There is hardly any surprise that you have all three of Messi, Suarez and Neymar on this list. After all, they are arguably the best forward line to have ever adorned the game if you go by many a fan and pundit drooling over their goal return. A hundred goals between the three this season alone and there’s still a great chunk of it left.

Switch to a Barca game for a matchday and you will see that between the three, they seem to all belong to another planet. Nutmegs, Rabonas, Carretilhas and a range of other dribbles flow like there’s no end to supply and they simply do it all at will. Leo is no stranger to a cheeky dribble or an audacious flick or an attempt at the impossible.

What would be cheeky for most is just another run of the mill moment for Messi. He makes everything look so easy and yet you cannot help but admire his cheekiness to attempt something as audacious as dribbling past a whole team almost literally on his own. Nutmegging a defender thrice in succession isn’t out of the order either when it comes to the Argentine and he has been doing it for over a decade now at the highest level. Now that’s cheeky.