Curl (association football)

[1] Curving or bending the ball is especially used in free kicks, shots from outside the penalty area and crosses.

[2][3] The technique of putting curl on a ball with the outside of the foot is sometimes known as a trivela, a Portuguese term, with Ricardo Quaresma a notable user of this skill.

[20][7][21] Gareth Bale[22][23][24][11] and Andrea Pirlo are also notable proponents of this technique when taking free-kicks.

Occasionally, a corner-taker will bend the ball towards the edge of the penalty area, for an attacker to volley, or take a touch and then shoot.

[26] In 1672, Isaac Newton had described it and correctly inferred the cause after observing tennis players in his Cambridge college.

[27][28] Many football players are renowned for their ability to curl or bend the ball when passing or shooting at goal, either from open play or a free kick.

These include: Pelé, Didi, Rivellino, Zico, Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Gianfranco Zola, Michael Gregoritsch, Siniša Mihajlović, Zinedine Zidane, Rivaldo, David Beckham, Roberto Carlos, Juninho, Ronald Koeman, Andrea Pirlo, Ricardo Quaresma, Gareth Bale, Philippe Coutinho, Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Neymar, Kaká, Miralem Pjanić, Rogério Ceni, Shunsuke Nakamura, Pierre van Hooijdonk, Hristo Stoichkov, Thomas Murg, Luis Chávez, Carlos Vela, Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modrić, Giuseppe Meazza, Ángel Di María, Kevin De Bruyne and Lionel Messi, among others.