7 showboating skills in football

Football is one of those games that aren’t purely about the win. There is a certain display of athleticism and skill that sets the game apart from most other sports. A stadium filled with people often spend the entirety of 90 minutes watching on for one piece of extravagant skill and a flash of genius that takes their breath away and gets them to the edge of the seat.Such displays of skill are usually rare and seen only a couple of times across the span of the ninety minutes. Some players, however, go that extra mile, practicing across training one special move which can get the crowd up in their seats. But do you really know what each of these moves are called? Surely you want to know.So, let us look at seven ways footballers showboat when on the field:

#1 The Elastico/Flip Flap

Ronaldinho is excellent with the ball at his feet

The Elastico or the flip flap is another trademark move you would associate mostly with the legendary Brazilian player Rivelino. The genius of Rivelino left many a player as mesmerized as the audience looking on from the crowds but none of his moves generated as much burn on the opposition player as the Elastico.

A move that made the best defenders look clueless, this was a skill of pure swagger that left audiences applauding the showmanship of the user and the complete destruction of the victimized defender.

By sending the ball in one direction with your foot and waiting for your opponent to follow the direction before quickly using the same foot to take the ball beyond them in the reverse direction in one smooth motion, Rivelino tore defensive reputation to shreds. Ronaldinho was also famous for the Flip Flap during his time at Barca.

#2 The Seal Dribble

So, you’ve quickly broken into a counter attack and have raced up the pitch with no support and there are too many defenders around you. The defenders are closing in and you have to keep hold of the ball at least till someone runs into space in your support. How do you keep hold of the ball and get the audience on their feet in one move? Simple really, just start dribbling like a seal.

The seal dribble is a spectacular way of holding onto the ball. You simply take the ball up on your head with the right flick and keep bouncing the ball on your forehead. While bouncing the ball, you just keep running past your opponent defenders. The funny part is there’s no legal way the defenders can tackle you considering they’d have to raise their legs at some height or time a jump at you with perfection.

Inevitably, most defenders end up fouling the seal dribbler and the dribbler either retains the ball or gets a free kick. Most importantly, this neat trick leaves the audience in peels of laughter and in amazement. Brazilian forward Kerlon and Italian forward Marco Nappi were famous for their seal dribbles.

#3 The Roulette

A defender running at you at pace with the ball at your feet and you really want to make them look stupid? Nothing works as good in this situation as the Roulette. As you keep the ball in one position turning your body a full 360 degrees with two swift movements synchronized with your turn, the defender will probably look all around the patch for a few seconds to figure out where the ball went.

No one did the Roulette as good as Zinedine Zidane or Diego Maradona could in their days. Zidane could even do two back to back if he was in the mood.

Since then, you don’t see it much, as the Cruyff turn has gained a universal appeal amongst players (so much so that even keepers have a go at it every now and then). However, nothing can get you on your feet and gasping as much as the momentum of a perfectly executed roulette can.

One search on YouTube will tell you how when you mention the Roulette, the world will remind you of Zidane.

#4 The Rabona

The Rabona is a move of a showboating footballer that encompasses Universal appeal. You don’t really see any team not appreciate a perfectly executed Rabona even if they’ve effectively played it against you. The Rabona basically includes you wrapping your kicking leg around your kicking leg and then either shooting or crossing to confuse the players around you.

The Rabona is a fairly old move and was made famous by a string of players ranging from Pele to Gianfranco Zola down to our very own Cristiano Ronaldo. If you still want to see a Rabona goal of high quality from a more recent competition, look out for the one scored by Erik Lamela vs Asteras Tripolis in the 2014-15 edition of the UEFA Europa League.

#5 The Carretilha/ Rainbow Flick

So you want to lob the ball over a defender and run to it only you want to look all sexy while doing it? Carretilha is the way to go for you, Muchacho! You take the ball and roll it up the back of your standing leg and then flick it in rotor fashion right over the defenders head and run into the ball as the defender follows the looping trajectory of the ball as it falls right into your feet.

This was a kick made famous by our very own happy Brazilian, Ronaldinho and more recently by Neymar but the most famous Rainbow Flick of this century is the one Turkish footballer, Ilhan Mansiz pulled on world-class left-back Roberto Carlos at the 2002 World Cup.

#6 The Hocus Pocus

So here’s a move that sounds delightful. Right out of the jargon book for a magic show, Hocus Pocus was a move the likes of Garrincha and Jairzinho used at will. The idea behind it is simple while the execution is not quite. You pull the ball behind your standing leg and place it such that it looks like you’re on for a Rabona and then push it into space behind the defender for you to run into all of it in one swift motion which leaves the defender for dead.

This is possibly one of the toughest moves to pull and you seldom see it attempted by anyone and everyone. However in his prime, the one player who could pull it off as if it were a piece of cake was Ronaldinho himself. Going by how much he could do on this list, you can imagine how much of a nightmare he really was for a defender.

#7 The Panenka penalty

No matter how much you categorize it into the realm of the cool-headed footballer’s ultimate skill, you have to admit that a Panenka penalty is a showboat piece of skill. You don’t really need it, but it can utterly destroy the defender its up against, that is in this case, the keeper. After it was first used by Antonin Panenka in the 1976 UEFA European Championship to beat a hapless Sepp Maier, this form of penalty taking has become quite a favorite for the technically gifted bunch.

Instead of putting your laces through it all you do is take a normal run up and pause right at the ball touching it with your foot in momentum at its underside to watch it loop into the goal. Recently executed with perfection by the likes of Andrea Pirlo, the kick is a showboating move that is as popular as it gets.