![]() Jude Bellingham became the most recent player to pull off an Elastico on the biggest stage at the 2022 World Cup, 52 years after Rivellino exposed it to the world at the 1970 World Cup. □□ Ronaldinho trademark move □ | #UCL /dRjYEwTMq5 It’s a really tough one to explain so I’ll let the master, Ronaldinho, take it away. One of the most rare, yet aesthetically pleasing, pieces of skill in world football.Īlso known as the flip-flap, the Elastico is completed by a player who pushes the ball in one direction with the outside of the foot before immediately moving it in the other direction using the inside of the foot. He is still considered one of the best players to ever wear the shirt of Argentine giants Boca Juniors and will forever be remembered as long as players in the modern day continue to practise the stepover. ![]() Pedro Calomino - one of the footballing pioneers of the early 1900s - is credited with being the inventor of the stepover, as well as the bicycle kick (which we’ll come to later). The two Ronaldos are perhaps the best practitioners of the skill as they have both used it to devastating effect over the last few decades. The Athletic | Football November 26, 2022 It really is as simple as it is sounds a player completes a stepover when he/she steps over the ball with their foot without touching the ball - as you can see from Enzo Fernandez, below, before scoring his first World Cup goal.Ī first international goal for Enzo Fernandez… and what a goal! #ARG | #MEX | #FIFAWorldCup ![]() It is a rare that a game goes by that doesn’t involve a stepover. Ricardo Infante used the skill all the way back in 1948 and was pictured on the cover of ‘El Grafico’ magazine - dressed as a schoolboy - with the caption: ‘El infante que se hizo la rabona’ (‘The kid who plays hooky’).įrom there, the term Rabona has been associated with every time a player has replicated that skill. In Spanish, the term Rabona means to play ‘hooky’ (to skip school). One of the earliest examples of a Rabona came from Pele - who will be mentioned regularly throughout this glossary - in the 1950s while a number of the world’s most talented players have popularised it ever since To perform a Rabona, a player must kick the ball with their kicking leg crossed behind the back of their standing leg.Īs Erik Lamela has showcased excellently above, it is often used when a player is uncomfortable using their weaker foot and would rather use the foot they feel more confident using. On most occasions, a Rabona is used more for flair and aesthetics than actual efficacy. ![]() “Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster.” RabonaĪ lesser-seen phenomenon at the World Cup. “Nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters were to pull a fast one by mixing a helping of wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped to England,” Seddon wrote. One of the claims was that it comes from Cockney rhyming slang with the ball going through the opponents nutmegs (legs).īut, writing in the book ‘Football Talk – The Language And Folklore Of The World’s Greatest Game’, Peter Seddon explains that its origin relates to the exportation of nutmeg between North America and England in the 1800s. The origin of the term - also the name of a spice used in cooking - is unclear as there are several explanations. A player must simply kick the ball through an opponent’s legs to perform a nutmeg. The Uruguayan striker has always been associated with the skill while Ronaldinho and Juan Roman Riquelme are two of the most iconic exponents from years gone by. Luis Suarez and Aissa Laidouni showed perhaps the two best examples of nutmegs (against Inaki Williams and Edouardo Camavinga respectively) in Qatar. ![]() This has been a really popular one at the World Cup. That said, they do certainly still exist and The Athletic is on hand to explain the most popular skills - and some tactics - that you might have seen at the World Cup. ![]()
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