Mercurial wingers who can stick the ball like glue to their feet and dance past an entire team will always be the best kind of breed in footballers.
The Neymar’s, Hazard’s, Adel Taarabt’s, (yes) Robben’s, and, of course, Messi’s of the world will always have a much deeper impact amongst football fans and romantics across the world.
But in today’s football, many fans have expressed their opinion that it is a dying breed. An endangered one, which could soon be extinct if players just operate by mere rules, structures, and passes.
That ‘X” factor is visibility gone from our game in today’s world, and many have over time blamed the Manchester City manager ‘Pep Guardiola’ for that.
Pep has a flawless system. It has won him major English titles and the UCL in a period where he has dominated English football for this decade, inspiring others at the same time to follow his methods and principles.
Although his teams are always good to watch on the eye as well, they often operate by triangles and passing principles, which require them to play passes with gradual progress in between these triangles.
This limits the scope of eccentric wing play or a little bit of ‘selfish’ dribbling in the Spaniard’s team and style of play.
This is why football poets and defenders of the lost art of dribbling have somewhere along the lines always blamed Pep for the downfall and potential extinction of these kinds of players.
So, when in the Ballon d’Or Ceremony when Lamine Yamal of Barcelona won the Kopa Trophy for the best young player under 21 in the world, famous Dutch mercurial winger himself, Ruud Gullit was there to congratulate and present him with the award.
After Yamal was announced as the winner, Guillitt went on to say, “I like to see players who are dribbling, and here is he,” pointing to the 17-year-old Barcelona winger.
He also pointed out how today’s modern footballer plays a one/two-touch pass style of play, whereas he has always loved players who could dribble and be that X factor, rightfully so, as the Dutch icon himself was such an acclaimed and mercurial winger.
This has won the fans across social media who have applauded Guillitt for this thus appreciating him for resonating with the fans and have also called out Pep again for his actions that have led to the potential extinction of these breed of players.
Guillitt’s remarks didn’t just praise Yamal; they sparked a reminder of the magic that comes when players go beyond the pass-and-move mentality. For fans, it was a refreshing shout-out to football’s more audacious side—where a clever dribble can leave defenders grasping at air and audiences on their feet.
In an age dominated by precision passing, Guillitt’s celebration of Yamal felt like a rallying call for the next generation: let’s bring back the thrill of the unexpected, and maybe—just maybe—Pep can take a note here: in a world of pass-first, sometimes it’s a bit of chaos that fans are really craving.