There really is nothing like a good dribble.
Not the kind where you awake drowning in the your own spittle, semi-comatose on the sofa at 3am on a Sunday morning and surrounded by a half-eaten kebab, a barely-touched can of Red Stripe from the corner shop and the steaming stench of regret. No, the football kind, the kind that gets you off your seat in an instant as a jinking winger or crafty playmaker makes mugs of serried defences, leaving a trail of trauma in their wake. The kind that makes football special.
The Premier League has witnessed some of the finest purveyors of spaghetti-legged brilliance since Sky invented football in 1992, and we at FourFourTwo wanted to celebrate these out-of-the-box creators.
This feature on best dribbler in Premier League history first appeared in the September 2021 edition of FourFourTwo. Subscribe to FourFourTwo today and save! You'll get 13 issues per year...
15. Jay-Jay Okocha
🎂 🇳🇬 So good they named him twice! Many happy returns to one of #BWFC's greatest ever players as @IAmOkocha celebrates his 44th birthday! 🐘🏰 pic.twitter.com/Fi3FhtCHaVAugust 14, 2017
Okocha was neither quick, nor dynamic, but good luck trying to get the ball off him. His dribbling skills were unique – often, the Nigerian would go full showboat, including with a rainbow flick over the head of a bemused Ray Parlour.
Best moment Bolton and West Ham were battling to avoid relegation in April 2003 when Okocha picked up the ball deep inside his own half, dribbled upfield, then blasted home the game’s only goal. Bolton stayed up and the Hammers’ all-stars went down.
14. Hatem Ben Arfa
If the rest of the winger’s game had been as good as his ability to beat a man, he would have earned more France caps. In top form, he was impossible to stop.
Best moment As Alan Pardew’s Newcastle charged to a fifth-placed finish in 2011/12, Ben Arfa charged past most of Bolton’s XI to score one of the finest goals that St James’ Park had witnessed in years. Pards told him to do that, obviously.
13. Dimitri Payet
'What a goal by Dimitri Payet!'@dimpayet17's amazing individual strike against @Boro is your October Goal of the Month#COYI pic.twitter.com/S7wJXnxAneNovember 9, 2016
Put it this way: the Frenchman’s dribbling was so potent, he managed to injure an overstretched goalkeeper while scoring for Marseille in 2018. West Ham fans enjoyed the best of Payet across 18 sparkling months in east London, before hearts were broken as he forced his way back to l’OM.
Best moment Bamboozling no fewer than five Middlesbrough players for a stunning goal of technical excellence in October 2016, earning the Hammers a 1-1 draw after four defeats in a row.
12. Juninho
The nimble Brazilian headed to the North East in 1995 and transformed Middlesbrough, largely by running at the opposition at every opportunity. When your team-mates include Phil Stamp and Jamie Pollock, it’s not a bad idea to just go it alone.
Best moment Winning the BBC’s Goal of the Month award after dribbling infield from the touchline against Chelsea, then exchanging passes with Mikkel Beck to head (!) home.
11. Matt Le Tissier
Blink and you... wouldn’t miss him. Le Tiss’ mazy credentials weren’t of the explosive variety, but who cares? “He could simply dribble past seven or eight players but without speed – he just walked past them,” noted No.1 fan Xavi, foam finger in hand.
Best moment His trademark stunners were often from distance, but Le Tissier shifted when he had to. His legendary juggle against Newcastle in October 1993, knocking the ball beyond Barry Venison and then over Kevin Scott, resulted in a sublime goal for the ages.
10. John Barnes
Barnes won his top-flight titles when it was still the First Division, but he had seven years in the Premier League with Liverpool, Newcastle and Charlton, and was one of the finest dribblers England has seen.
Best moment All right, we’re cheating here, but when it comes to Barnes and dribbling, you can’t choose anything but his first goal for England, against Brazil at the Maracana. It’s a serious contender for the greatest goal in Three Lions history.
9. Riyad Mahrez
You know a trick is good when everyone sees it coming and it still works a treat every time. Much like Arjen Robben, Mahrez and his chop inside has embarrassed a long line of foes, and the spindly-legged assassin continues to put it to regular, effective use for Manchester City.
Best moment Google ‘Mahrez Aston Villa’ – then watch him put three defenders on their backside with one 2015 feint for would-be champions Leicester.
8. Gianfranco Zola
Liverpool on Sunday...🤯 Gianfranco Zola! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/xP3V3EyBVpSeptember 17, 2020
He might have been about 3ft 7in, but Chelsea’s impish genius held his own in any duel. He gave Julian Dicks a nightmare mere weeks after his arrival in England from Italy, before dancing through Manchester United’s defence to score a similar beauty two months later.
Best moment Even at 36, Zola could mug the best, as his joyful corner-hogging against Liverpool in April 2003 proved. Three Reds players tried to rob him… all three failed.
7. Chris Waddle
The winger was 31 by the time he joined Sheffield Wednesday at the start of the Premier League era, yet he became an Owls legend for skinning opponents week in, week out. Some teams put two men on him – and he would just dribble straight between them.
Best moment Using a stepover and drop of the shoulder to deceive Leeds’ Gary Speed in a Yorkshire derby at Elland Road, before lashing home the winner from a ludicrously acute angle – and all with his baggy jersey untucked like the worst ruffian.
6. Thierry Henry
Henry was a cyborg composed of brute and beauty – but his dribbling prowess was arguably borne of the former. Velvet touches may stir the senses, but Titi knew there was a time and place for those... not least when you could just blitz a team from the halfway line.
Best moment You might say his solo Highbury strike against Spurs, but for importance, keeping Arsenal Invincibles on track in April 2004 takes some beating. The second goal of his treble against Liverpool was a glorious gallop through the middle which put Didi Hamann, Igor Biscan and Jamie Carragher – a victim of our No.8 as well, bless him – in a tailspin.
5. David Ginola
Most of the finest dribblers are slightly built. Well, apart from Adama Traoré. And Ginola, too, wanted to show us his muscles: his locks flowing behind him, the Frenchman combined power and skill to beat opponents and be a hero at Newcastle and Spurs.
Best moment Picking the ball up on the touchline, then darting past four players to score the only goal of an FA Cup quarter-final at Barnsley in 1999. It won BBC Goal of the Month – it would have won goal of the season, if the semis hadn’t delivered another amazing individual strike…
4. Steve McManaman
There’s a reason why Real Madrid were so keen to sign Macca in 1999: next to nobody in Europe could carry a ball upfield with such purpose as the mop-haired Liverpool wideman.
Best moment Take your pick. McManaman wasn’t short of fine solo goals. After scoring two of them to win the League Cup final in 1995, he ran virtually the length of the field to stun Celtic at Parkhead in a UEFA Cup tie two years later.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo morphed from sulky stepover merchant into bona fide superstar at Old Trafford – but even those early days of boyish trickery were lovely fun. Eventually, skill was blended with monstrous physique to make for a Ballon d’Or-winning force of nature on the flank.
Best moment Ronaldo’s big breakthrough came in 2006/07, and featured a blistering individual goal at Fulham that started inside his own half. This lad is special, all right.
2. Ryan Giggs
It takes something special to become a Manchester United first-team regular aged 17, but this adopted son of Salford was exactly that. Crucially, Giggs was fearless with his runs down the wing as he tore defences apart, again and again.
Best moment Showing the world his hairy chest after the aforementioned 1999 FA Cup semi-final cracker against Arsenal. Though, as a withering Gary Neville said 15 years later (tongue firmly in cheek): “A little bit greedy…”
1. Eden Hazard
3⃣0⃣ yards travelled 7⃣ players beaten Eden Hazard's stunning solo goal v West Ham one year ago today is the @GilletteUK Precision Play Gold🥇 pic.twitter.com/2bPN5bAJ0mApril 8, 2020
While his magnetic ball control was plain to see, the Belgian’s stumpy frame belied a low centre of gravity and a body strength that emanated – not to beat around the bush – from his arse. Chelsea’s Opta stats darling topped the Premier League’s dribbling charts in five of the six seasons from 2013 to 2019.
Best moment Hazard was a delight to watch in his final season at Stamford Bridge, typified by the breathtaking 45-yard slalom goal that baffled five West Ham players in April 2019.
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