You had completely forgotten about Riquelme for a minute hadn’t you? Well shame on you!
The Boca Juniors club legend has called time on a career that has has culminated in one of the most impressive highlight reels in football history.
At 36, the former Villareal player has decided that it’s finally time to give goalkeepers some respite from his stunning free-kicks.
Here are 10 of the best bits from the famous Argentina number 10:
1. You’d be hard done by to find a better nutmeg than this Riquelme beauty.
2. Walls and goalkeepers became something of an irrelevant non-matter when ol’ Ricky was standing over a free-kick.
3. For all the finesse that is associated with Juan, he doesn’t get enough acknowledgement for his sledgehammer of a right foot.
4. We’ve seen his ability to nutmeg defenders above but the former Barca man can somehow pull the technique off without touching the football.
5. Panenka y’all! It’s something of an unwritten rule that this penalty has to be completed by a player for them to truly attain legend status. Riquelme pulls it off sans bother.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfMHcquuaLI
6. Most of the time when players attempt something like this, it’s put down to a lucky cross befuddling the goalkeeper but we’re in no doubt that JRR meant this bad boy.
7. Something so basic that can look so beautiful, Riquelme mastered the art of committing defenders before turning on a sixpence which set up many a counter-attack in his 18 years as a pro.
8. Riquelme laughs at your “acute angles” nonsense.
9. Don’t be fooled! The Argentine is not simply a set-piece specialist. He can do this!
10. A rarity in football but scoring directly from corners was something that Riquelme attempted quite often. It was audacious but hey, he’s an audacious sort of fella.
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