History has been a witness of some very famous left footed footballers who have left their footprints all over the legends of the sport. From Diego Maradona to Lionel Messi, the biggest magicians of the sport were left footed. The ‘Southpaws’ of football tend to show more control, grace and creativity on the football pitch.
Not to disregard the right foot wizards but a left footed creative player seems like poetry in motion.
It has been a well known fact that a left footed player is the main outlet of creativity in most teams.
A player who is a left-footed attacking midfielder, plays the best behind the main striker and is also the main creator on the pitch. There are just too many players that you can put into this category.
For Example- Di Maria, James Rodriguez, Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff, Mesut Ozil, Ferenc Puskas, David Silva, Juan Mata, Guti, Griezmann, just to name a few.
They might not be the best players of all time but the quality on the ball is just extra compared to their right-footed counterparts.
The left footed no.10 playing on the right wing, you just know that he will be dictating the flow of the game and you have to stop him anyhow.
Are Left Footed Footballers Better Than Right Footed Footballers?
A recent study with more than 12,000 participants found that just like for handedness, most people have a right-sided preference (Tran and Voracek, 2016). Overall, there were 61.6 percent right-footers, 8.2 percent left-footers, and 30.2 percent mixed-footers.
This also makes it further clear, as the number of left footed players is comparably low, it is easy for them to shine and make their impact but the quality doesn’t lie. The sample size is usually small as left footed players mostly play at left-back or right wing but teams nowadays prefer a left footed centre-back in the team who usually becomes a creator from the defence line and is used for more vertical football and make those line-breaking passes.
The new generation is also filled with these type of players as Martin Odegaard, Lamine Yamal, Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, Rayan Cherki, Arda Guler and Franco Mastantuono and many more will be creating history in the coming few years.
