With the Premier League seemingly on the edge of a financial meltdown, the image of modern football as not much more than a slick, commercial enterprise that has drained the soul out of the beautiful game seems increasingly hard to ignore.However you would be amiss to forget that some of the finest talent in the sport still perform here every week.
This is most notably on display in the vast array of wonderful dribblers to have graced the league for years with their mesmerising skill and invention. Here is Sport.co.uk’s Top Ten: Premier League dribblers.
Ryan Giggs
If the Premier League ever decides to use an NBA style logo, the silhouetted image will surely be of Ryan Giggs in full flight as he skips past a helpless defender. Having played in every Premier League season since its inception, the Welsh wing wizard has without doubt been the defining player of the league’s first two decades.
Giggs made his Manchester United debut in 1991 and soon gained the left wing spot that he has virtually inhabited ever since. Blessed with pace and exquisite ball control, his swashbuckling style was all the more remarkable for the amount of times it resulted in a goal or dangerous cross.
The greatest example arguably game in the 1999 FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal when, picking up the ball in his own half, he went onto bamboozle four Arsenal players before proceeding to rifle it into the roof of the net.
Gianfranco Zola
The fulcrum of Chelsea’s attack for seven years, Gianfranco Zola won the hearts of not just Chelsea supporters, but football fans up and down the country with countless examples of virtuoso brilliance. For all of the west London club’s subsequent success, it is hard to believe any player could match the levels of fondness felt for Zola.
Operating either as a second striker or in attacking midfield, like Diego Maradona his mentor years earlier at Napoli, the diminutive Italian was far from lightweight. When anyone got near him he was strong and resourceful, but more often than not he had already taken it past them before they got near.
Zola was able to spot and utilise his opponent’s weaknesses, taking advantage of their slowness or when they rushed into a tackle, his skill meant he was able to leave them hanging there while simultaneously orchestrating a Chelsea attack.
Paolo Di Canio
There have been few more controversial figures in football in recent years than Paolo Di Canio. Whether it was his fascist salute at Lazio, or pushing over referee Paul Alcock after being sent off for Sheffield Wednesday, the Italian has made his fair share of headlines.
Yet it was this volatile nature that made him such an exciting and dangerous player to watch.
The way Di Canio would invite a player in before ruthlessly taking the ball past him had an almost dramatic quality to it.
Make no mistake, while never quite gaining the accolades awarded to other similar Italian players of his generations (Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, the aforementioned Zola) the fiery Roman was just as skilful. Wednesday and West Ham fans would perhaps argue even more so.
David Ginola
David Ginola was not the most successful Frenchman so far to play in the Premier League. Arsenal fans would certainly argue members of their own French contingent were far greater players than the Frenchman so beloved of their north London rivals.
But this perhaps is why Ginola is so special. In three years at Tottenham Hotspur he did not play with many great players, yet the maverick left winger enchanted White Hart Lane with dazzling performances and literally inspired them to safety in a 1997 – 1998 season that had threatened to end in relegation. A year later he helped Spurs win the Worthington Cup, winning the PFA and FWA player of the year awards in the process.
Prior to that Ginola captivated Newcastle United too. In the first of two seasons at St James Park he was part of the side that so narrowly missed out on winning the title.
Marc Overmars
Marc Overmars is perhaps not the most extravagant of dribblers to have played in the Premier League, but he was certainly one of the most effective.
Extremely quick, Overmars was both footed and had excellent technique. It meant he retained impeccable control whether attacking the wing from deep or in short bursts as he navigated his way through bodies and flying tackles.
One of Arsene Wenger’s first major signings at Arsenal, the Dutch winger helped the Gunners to a memorable league and cup double during the 1997 – 1998 season. It was a great loss to the Premier League when after three seasons he joined Barcelona in 2000.
Juninho
There cannot be many more unexpected signings in English football history than when Juninho joined Middlesbrough in 1995. The man known to his mother as Osvaldo Giroldo Junior was one of Brazilian football’s brightest prospects. So when he turned up on Teeside, he was given a suitably jubilant reception by the locals. It was the beginning of a love affair between the two that would take in three spells at the Riverside stadium.
While taking a little time to adjust in his first season, Juninho was soon bewitching audiences everywhere. The tricky Brazilian had skill reminiscent of many of his great countrymen, but also great bravery and spirit. In his second season, these traits helped lead Boro to two cup finals and saw him admirably try to lift them in an ultimately doomed relegation fight.
Things would end happier when in 2004 he helped Middlesbrough to win the Carling Cup.
Andrei Kanchelskis
Such is the vast number of great players to have played for Manchester United in the Alex Ferguson era, he may be forgotten from time to time but history will not forget the impact Andrei Kanchelskis had for the Red Devils.
Joining United in 1991, by the first Premier League season the Russian (of Ukrainian origin) had established himself on the right side of Ferguson’s midfield. Along with Giggs on the left wing (and the option of Lee Sharpe), Kanchelskis helped give United’s first title winning side in over 20 years a dangerous attacking outlet on the flanks.
His galloping, direct style may not have made him as easy on the eye as Giggs, but he was just a dangerous a presence for any prospective opponent. Even when Kanchelskis moved onto Everton in 1995 he was one of the league’s top wide men, only diminishing after joining Fiorentina.
Arjen Robben
Injuries unfortunately contributed to limited appearances in what became a short stay at the club, but there is no underestimating the impact Arjen Robben had for Chelsea as they won two Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006.
Jose Mourinho’s sides are often remarked upon for their pragmatic and direct style, but they would not have got as far but for the quality injected by players like Robben. Along with Damien Duff the Dutchman acted as Chelsea’s primary creative outlets, operating usually either side of a lone striker. Robben’s cavalier dribbling style was certainly direct in its ultimate destination, but this did not distract from the skill in which he used to take players on.
When he left for Real Madrid in 2007, others like Shaun Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole were not able to replicate Robben’s role with as much success.
Aaron Lennon
As of right now there is much evidence to suggest that Aaron Lennon is currently the most deadly winger in the Premier League. While it is his extraordinary pace that is often referred to, this attribute would not mean as much without the tremendous skill he has worked onto bring to his game.
Given the right amount of space the Tottenham winger has been known to destroy players with his speed, but that is not a luxury always granted in football. Instead Lennon has learnt to coax opponents by giving them the briefest look of the ball. Having invited them in he then proceeds to take it the other way. It is an ability all the more remarkable for the fact it is often done in a split second with little space to work in.
Frighteningly at just 22 years of age, he is likely to get better.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The nine previous names made it onto this list amidst some tough competition. But there is no arguing the final name. Cristiano Ronaldo in many ways came to reinvent what we expect from our attacking players. In six years with Manchester United he morphed from a showboat heavy teenager into one of the most devastating attackers football has ever known.
Comfortable on either side of midfield, as well as a deep-lying forward or in leading the frontline, Ronaldo had all the attributes. A wide range of tricks and step-overs, tremendous power, dizzying speed and phenomenal technique. Somehow he was often able to incorporate all this into a single run. Not merely taking it past players, he was able to obliterate them.
For all his petulance, and on occasion cheating, both United and the Premier League are worse off without him.