Chindie Posted December 16, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2022 So with the untimely death of Mihajlovic, the legendary Serbian whose freekicks terrified Serie A through the 90s and early 00s, the thought arises... Who is the Greatest Taker of Freekicks Of All Time (the GTFOAT, if you will)? Mihajlovic and Juninho Pernambuco jump to mind, but who else is in the title fight? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 (edited) Juan Arango never met a dead-ball he couldn't bury. Sure, he won't be up there with the insane Juninho P. numbers, but a cursory glance at some stats has him at 26 career goals from direct free-kicks. Edit: for comparison, Mihajlovic at 25 (which seems low, it's only transfermarkt stats I'm going by so I'm not too sure of the veracity of that one) and Juninho P. a whopper 41. Wowzers. Edit Edit: as per @sne below, that Mihajlovic 25 number is bollocks. Edited December 16, 2022 by GarethRDR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mark Albrighton Posted December 16, 2022 VT Supporter Popular Post Share Posted December 16, 2022 I suppose this will be the nearest thing we’ll have to a second Leandro Bacuna thread. Spoiler 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post GarethRDR Posted December 16, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted December 16, 2022 I do love that mad Chilavert one from the half-way line. 3 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Yeah, that sounds more like it! Absolutely unreal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted December 16, 2022 Author VT Supporter Share Posted December 16, 2022 In fairness there won't be many Villa names in here. I can't recall us ever having a reliable direct free kick taker. Young I think scored a couple, Solano the same, Hitzlsperger got a couple (and in fairness I think he got a couple where he smashed it into the wall and then hammered the rebound in...)... We've not really been any good with dead ball situations in decades. Bar that season with Young and Laursen banging in corners. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Luc Nilis was pretty great at FK's but we never got to see that at Villa. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Nilis is the second biggest what-if? of my lifetime, right after that cute brunette I was too oblivious to realise was flirting with me on those bus rides to college. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 1 minute ago, GarethRDR said: Nilis is the second biggest what-if? of my lifetime, right after that cute brunette I was too oblivious to realise was flirting with me on those bus rides to college. Can't say about that brunette but Nilis is among my maybe top-5 favorite players of all time. He was an artist in a similar way to Ronaldinho almost. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Ronald Koeman, Mihajlovic and Juninho Surprised no mention of Beckham. A mention to Recoba who would be shooting from free kicks in the centre circle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Zico was meant to be very good wasn't he. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Zico, Platini and this fella were all very, very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 It's difficult to say but there was a time where it felt as a penalty if Mihaijlovic got a free-kick within scoring range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 To answer the OP. For me it's Mihajlovic followed by Juninho. Then there is a gap to anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 43 minutes ago, GarethRDR said: I do love that mad Chilavert one from the half-way line. Rogerio Ceni was probably a bit better at them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 Looking up some stats and no way this can be true but apparently Ronaldo has scored 58 free kicks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 (edited) 48 minutes ago, Zatman said: Looking up some stats and no way this can be true but apparently Ronaldo has scored 58 free kicks Not surprising, he's probably took two in every match he's played for the last 12-13 years so that would be about 1000 free kicks. A few would go in just by chance I vote Carlos just for the sheer 'putting whole tree trunk sized thigh into it' power he used. Apparently scored 59 free kicks Edited December 16, 2022 by VillaJ100 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 I think less direct free kicks are scored nowadays. Or it feels that way. Better and more agile keepers maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted December 16, 2022 Share Posted December 16, 2022 8 minutes ago, Xela said: I think less direct free kicks are scored nowadays. Or it feels that way. Better and more agile keepers maybe? Think it must have something to do with these modern footballs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts