Let’s face it, even if you’re not much of a football player, knowing how to handle a few football tricks can mean a world of difference in your friends circle. Improving on your football tricks and skills isn’t just for impressing your friends and the ladies though. They can also get your match performance to a higher level, because they’re surprising and effective.

I can give you a lot of examples on that part: remember when Ronaldinho first started to perform his famous Elastico move? (flicking the ball with his outside of the foot to the left, then quickly cutting it with his inside) Nowadays, a defender that’s facing Ronaldinho in a one versus one duel will surely be careful against this move, but when the Brazilian had just invented it, it was extremely surprising and he managed to create havoc whenever his Elastico would work.

I’m not saying you’ll be able to perform as well as Ronaldinho after you learn football tricks like that, but it can definitely give you a surprising edge in a match situation.

Another great example of football tricks and skills that can make a difference is Zidane’s 360 spin. Although it’s a very effective and simple move, it wasn’t until Zizou popularized it that players all over the World actually used it in matches.

So, if you learn football tricks, you’ll be able to gain an edge on your opponent, but that probably wasn’t that hard to figure out anyway. The real question is HOW to do football tricks and how to learn them correctly. Here’s what I would suggest.

Try to have a step-by-step approach when you learn football tricks, categorizing them on difficulty levels. Start with the basic ones, move on to advanced moves and once you get both these categories well under your boot, try out those special few that are extremely hard to master.

Obviously, if you’re practicing these moves by yourself, or with the help of a friend, you’ll be able to perform them with no or little resistance, which is rarely the case in a real match (and if there’s no resistance, why would you perform them in a match anyway?). So besides practicing the actual move, you’ll also have to work on the timing of your football tricks and skills.

A couple of basic moves could include: the Zidane 360 spin, the stop and go, the Puskas V-move or the fake shot dribble.

Under the advanced category, you could try the Cruyff move, the stepover and double stepover or the Scotch.

Moves that are quite difficult to master and are better off left for last, include: Ronaldinho’s Elastico move, the “Brazilian” rainbow move or the Van Persie sweep.

Start off with the basic ones and practice them thoroughly, until you feel you’ve mastered these football tricks. Of course, when you move on to the advanced moves, these will take a lot longer to get a solid grip over, but you will have had already built some basic ball control skills from the basic dribble.

More difficult dribbles like the Elastico, or the rainbow kick will take a while to get a grip on, but don’t get discouraged if you keep failing on executing them! With enough practice, there’s no trick that you won’t be able to handle. The only thing that kills learning a specific trick is saying “I can’t do this” and cutting it off your list.