{"id":36701,"date":"2021-02-18T16:36:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/?p=36701"},"modified":"2021-02-18T16:36:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T16:36:30","slug":"premier-league-free-kick-takers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\/","title":{"rendered":"5 surprising Premier League free kick takers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Many will argue that Ronaldo isn\u2019t the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/best-free-kick-takers-ever\/\">free kick god<\/a> that others proclaim him to be. Though it\u2019s safe to say that his name will inevitably come up in <em>any <\/em>conversation that has the faintest mention of set-pieces. And if we\u2019re being honest, we\u2019ve all stood behind the ball in the wide-legged, CR7 pose at least once. But today we\u2019re drifting away from the traditional English league\u2019s spot-kick talisman, the Beckhams, Zolas, Henrys. Let\u2019s take a look at some of the most surprising free kick takers in te Premier League, past and present.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\">Surpising Premier League free kick takers<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Juan Mata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid youth academy graduate Juan Mata is as versatile in midfield as it comes. What he may lack in pace he makes up for with vision, control and technique. No longer a regular starter at United, only making the first-team sheet 4 times this season, it\u2019s looking like a summer transfer may be likely for ol\u2019 Juan.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to Premier League free kick takers, Mata is one of the best. 8 scored in his career so far, his prowess from the spot has also come in handy at European and international level. His equaliser against Juventus in 2018 was the impetus for a late Champions League comeback, the winner coming from another curling set-piece by Young which somehow broke through the defence and wound up in the back of the net.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cristian Eriksen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Winner of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/best-danish-footballers\/\">Danish player of the year<\/a> a record-setting five times, Cristian Eriksen knows a thing or two about set-pieces. 2013 was the year of big spends for Tottenham as they brought Eriksen over from Ajax, along with Roma\u2019s Erik Lamela and Chiriches from FCSB for a combined \u00a3110 million.<\/p>\n<p>Three Eredivisie titles in a row were the precursor for a move to the Premier League, which has since seen him score 51 goals in 226 appearances, with 8 coming from free kicks. We may even see him back in the English top tier soon, as speculation around a possible trade with Jorginho of Chelsea has been making headlines recently.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>James Ward-Prowse<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Arguably there are no better free kick takers in the Premier League, or arguably the world, than James Ward-Prowse at the moment. Southampton\u2019s spot-kick aficionado has scored 5 goals this season, 4 of them being from free kicks, taking his total up to 10 overall. To put that in perspective, no other player this season has scored more than one.<\/p>\n<p>A lifelong Saints lad, both youth and senior career, Ward-Prowse is quickly becoming the staple for all set-pieces in the Premier League. He has the best conversion rate since 2003, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en-gb\/news\/the-best-free-kick-taker-i-have-seen-in-my-life-pep-praises-ward-\/1ccfst0ctpf4x1jnjicd2bo44l\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with Pep Guardiola even singing his praises<\/a>; \u201cThe best free kick taker I have seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Morten Gamst Pedersen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A few questions were asked in 2004 when Graham Souness dropped \u00a31.5 million on an unheard-of Norweigan midfielder. But 349 games and 47 goals later, a legend of yester-year was born. Morten Gamst Pedersen, Blackburn\u2019s number 12 for 9 years from \u201804 &#8211; 2013, is best remembered for his knack of 30 yarders, volleys and freekicks.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-Troms\u00f8 winger scored 10 free kicks in the Premier League, plus a whole host of\u00a0 goal of the month contenders. He also famously committed one of the lousiest dives in English football, sprawling out in the penalty box against Arsenal with Bacary Sagna no less than 6 foot behind. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/football-var-explained\/\">VAR<\/a> would have probably had a different angle though.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ian Harte<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A surprise entry on our list of Premier League free kick takers, Ian Harte was Ireland\u2019s Roberto Carlos. There\u2019s just something about a long-range screamer that\u2019s better when it\u2019s scored by a defender. Ian Harte was Leeds\u2019 go-to left back from 1996 &#8211; 2004, and more importantly, their free kick specialist.<\/p>\n<p>A curling left foot, in boots that were allegedly two sizes too small as they improved his accuracy, he scored 85 career goals, which for a defender is a top achievement. If any proof is needed, his 2002 free kick against Man Utd when Leeds were 4 &#8211; 1 down is testament to his outrageous outside the box abilities.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>You could earn up to \u00a3100 (or currency equivalent) in bonus funds by joining Colossus with our New Player Bonus. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=blog_unpaid_content&amp;utm_campaign=blog_newplayerbonus\">Click here to join the action.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many will argue that Ronaldo isn\u2019t the free kick god that others proclaim him to be. Though it\u2019s safe to say that his name will inevitably come up in any conversation that has the faintest mention of set-pieces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[643],"tags":[272,76],"class_list":["post-36701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-featurehome","tag-premier-league"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.7 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>5 surprising Premier League free kick takers - Colossus Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There have been some surprising free kick takers in the Premier League over the years. We take a look at 5 unexpected dead ball specialists.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 surprising Premier League free kick takers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There have been some surprising free kick takers in the Premier League over the years. We take a look at 5 unexpected dead ball specialists.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colossus Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SportsBigger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-18T16:36:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colossusbets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/GettyImages-1146283581-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1773\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Callum Tabreham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/TabCallum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ColossusBets\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Callum Tabreham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Callum Tabreham\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4350e9868e524030055c3a0e7799136c\"},\"headline\":\"5 surprising Premier League free kick takers\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-18T16:36:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":710,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"FeatureHome\",\"Premier League\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2021\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/premier-league-free-kick-takers\\\/\",\"name\":\"5 surprising Premier League free kick takers - Colossus Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.colossusbets.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-18T16:36:30+00:00\",\"description\":\"There have been some surprising free kick takers in the Premier League over the years. 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