Cultured Left Foot

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
51,381
Location
The stable
First of all, what is a cultured left foot? Why is it only the left foot which cultured? Why does a "cultured right foot" not exist?

Which players have a cultured left foot?

Does Juan Mata have one or is he just a left footed player who is cultured?
 

Art Vandelay

Full Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Messages
5,729
Location
Northern Ireland
It comes from olden times when left footed players were burned at the stake for being witches as far as I'm aware. Riquelme had a cultured right foot, but he too was a witch. They stopped burning them and told them they were cultured to shut them up.
 

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
51,381
Location
The stable
It comes from olden times when left footed players were burned at the stake for being witches as far as I'm aware. Riquelme had a cultured right foot, but he too was a witch. They stopped burning them and told them they were cultured to shut them up.
:lol:
 

Haddock

Full Member
Joined
May 25, 2013
Messages
729
Left footed players are, I would assume, rarer. Even rarer is a good left footed player. A cultured left foot (also known as a wand) refers to the way someone strikes a ball. Some intagible aesthetic value is ascribed to the parabolic arc the ball makes when struck. You will know it when you see it.

Juan Mata, David Silva and Mesut Özil are just extraordinarily talented players. Their left feet are not regarded as especially cultured because they also possess a highly developed all round game. Thus the owner of a properly cultured left foot has to give off the appearance of a bottom of the table clogger in both name and playing style.

Morten Gamst Pedersen had a cultured left leg, but he seemed too....cultured? Who the f*** does he think he is with his blonde locks and his Nordic good looks? Besides I once heard that he was a natural right footer anyway. Olivier Giroud gets called a donkey but he's far too good and subtle a player to have a 'cultured' left foot. Gareth Barry did have a cultured left foot but his all round game was too good.

A player has to be limited enough that the left foot is the only serious attribute. It helps when one can cross or take a good set piece. Think Chris Brunt, Charlie Adam or Robert Snodgrass. If [Irrelevant point] was called Mark Anderton and played for Burnley he would qualify.
 
Last edited:

horsechoker

The Caf's Roy Keane.
Joined
Apr 16, 2015
Messages
51,381
Location
The stable
Left footed players are, I would assume, rarer. Even rarer is a good left footed player. A cultured left foot (also known as a wand) refers to the way someone strikes a ball. Some intagible aesthetic value is ascribed to the parabolic arc the ball makes when struck. You will know it when you see it.

Juan Mata, David Villa and Mesut Özil are just extraordinarily talented players. Their left feet are not regarded as especially cultured because they also possess a highly developed all round game. Thus the owner of a properly cultured left foot has to give off the appearance of a bottom of the table clogger in both name and playing style.

Morten Gamst Pedersen had a cultured left leg, but he seemed too....cultured? Who the f*** does he think he is with his blonde locks and his Nordic good looks? Besides I once heard that he was a natural right footer anyway. Olivier Giroud gets called a donkey but he's far too good and subtle a player to have a 'cultured' left foot. Gareth Barry did have a cultured left foot but his all round game was too good.

A player has to be limited enough that the left foot is the only serious attribute. It helps when one can cross or take a good set piece. Think Chris Brunt, Charlie Adam or Robert Snodgrass. If [Irrelevant point] was called Mark Anderton and played for Burnley he would qualify.
Ok so a left footed player who isn't go enough for a top 6 team?
 

Art Vandelay

Full Member
Joined
Jan 29, 2015
Messages
5,729
Location
Northern Ireland
Left footed players are, I would assume, rarer. Even rarer is a good left footed player. A cultured left foot (also known as a wand) refers to the way someone strikes a ball. Some intagible aesthetic value is ascribed to the parabolic arc the ball makes when struck. You will know it when you see it.

Juan Mata, David Villa and Mesut Özil are just extraordinarily talented players. Their left feet are not regarded as especially cultured because they also possess a highly developed all round game. Thus the owner of a properly cultured left foot has to give off the appearance of a bottom of the table clogger in both name and playing style.

Morten Gamst Pedersen had a cultured left leg, but he seemed too....cultured? Who the f*** does he think he is with his blonde locks and his Nordic good looks? Besides I once heard that he was a natural right footer anyway. Olivier Giroud gets called a donkey but he's far too good and subtle a player to have a 'cultured' left foot. Gareth Barry did have a cultured left foot but his all round game was too good.

A player has to be limited enough that the left foot is the only serious attribute. It helps when one can cross or take a good set piece. Think Chris Brunt, Charlie Adam or Robert Snodgrass. If [Irrelevant point] was called Mark Anderton and played for Burnley he would qualify.
Witchcraft.

Gamst Pedersen was right footed before his tryst with the devil and subsequent sorcerous seduction into the dark arts and left footedness.

Gary Linekar couldn't use his left foot at all and was never booked. I rest my case.
 

matherto

ask me about our 50% off sale!
Joined
Nov 3, 2009
Messages
17,511
Location
St. Helens
Becks is the only player I know with a cultured right foot.

See also: wand of a left foot, hammer of a left foot.
 

Rozay

Master of Hindsight
Joined
Oct 22, 2012
Messages
27,025
Location
...
Left footed players are, I would assume, rarer. Even rarer is a good left footed player. A cultured left foot (also known as a wand) refers to the way someone strikes a ball. Some intagible aesthetic value is ascribed to the parabolic arc the ball makes when struck. You will know it when you see it.

Juan Mata, David Villa and Mesut Özil are just extraordinarily talented players. Their left feet are not regarded as especially cultured because they also possess a highly developed all round game. Thus the owner of a properly cultured left foot has to give off the appearance of a bottom of the table clogger in both name and playing style.

Morten Gamst Pedersen had a cultured left leg, but he seemed too....cultured? Who the f*** does he think he is with his blonde locks and his Nordic good looks? Besides I once heard that he was a natural right footer anyway. Olivier Giroud gets called a donkey but he's far too good and subtle a player to have a 'cultured' left foot. Gareth Barry did have a cultured left foot but his all round game was too good.

A player has to be limited enough that the left foot is the only serious attribute. It helps when one can cross or take a good set piece. Think Chris Brunt, Charlie Adam or Robert Snodgrass. If [Irrelevant point] was called Mark Anderton and played for Burnley he would qualify.
Pretty sure David Villa is right footed.
 

Ace

Full Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
4,376
Location
Colorado
[Irrelevant point] for me.
Alexander-Arnold’s right peg is all the culture you’ll ever need.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
2,824
Same reason you hear 'tricky lefty' all the time in tennis and never 'tricky righty'. Being right-footed is considered the default so the rarity itself adds to the aesthetic of left-footed players.

First players I think of with a 'cultured left foot': Messi, Mata, Ozil, Silva, Guti, Juan Quintero
It's hard to think of right footed players that fit the description because I just find left footed players so much more satisfying, but there are undoubtedly a few that fit the description when I try to remove that bias: Beckham, Zidane, Eriksen, Ronaldinho, Iniesta
 

carvajal

Full Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2015
Messages
11,053
Location
Spain
Supports
Real Madrid
If it is something like having a glove on the foot, logically Maradona is the best example. Perhaps the feeling, possibly wrong, that certain left foot players can achieve more technique (and more dependency) on their leg than a right.
To those you named I would add Asensio. From the past I really enjoyed Futre, Stoichkov,Suker or Redondo.
 

spaceboyRSA

Full Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2014
Messages
1,653
Location
South Africa
Messi's foot drinks Laphroaig, smokes cubans and speaks with a french accent whilst reading Dostoevsky and playing the violin
 

Charles Miller

Full Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
3,046
When i was young i did not believe people were really left footed. I thought those guys were pretending be different and special.
 

Rasendori

Man Of Culture
Joined
May 30, 2016
Messages
1,785
Human beings are predominantly right footed. Therefore, there's a sense that those that are right footed are natural. Whereas, those that are left footed are a rarity in comparison. Now something that is rare may be perceived as fancy, pretentious, or even cultured. Although, if you perceive those to be left footed as cultured, one might consider those to have the dominant right foot to be primitive in comparison.

Going back to 447 BC, being from Ancient Greece was a great source of pride, you had the Parthenon frieze on the beautiful Acropolis amongst other things. Whilst Athens, and Pericles according to Thucydides, claimed to be accommodating, there was nonetheless a sense of superiority. Indeed, foreigners were considered barbarians by Greeks, as there was a sense that because they were unable to speak Greek, they sounded like "bar bar bar."

Most people when going for a burger would be content with a hamburger, with meat and ketchup. Whereas the cultured man would go for something packed with umami flavour like an Asion fushion burger, willow farms organic Turkey, toasted tallegio cheese crisp, papaya chutney, black truffle aioli and microgreens on a gluten-free brioche bun.

Examples of footballers with a "cultured" left foot may include the following:
Cruyff
Di Stéfano
Hagi
Marcelo
Puskás
Rivaldo
Rivellino
Savićević
 

Rhyme Animal

Thinks Di Zerbi is better than Pep.
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
11,193
Location
Nonchalantly scoring the winner...
I always thought a 'cultured left-foot' was in reference to right footed players who had a good pass / shot with their left foot...?

I'm right footed but can honestly curl a left footed pass with surprising grace and accuracy (although nowhere enough power / speed to be competitively successful).

I can curl the ball more naturally easily with my left-foot.
 

Stacks

Full Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2015
Messages
10,903
Location
Between a rock and Gibraltar
Left footed players are technially better than right footed players obviously. Every left footer is a Bale, Robben, Robertson, Messi, Harte, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Raul or Adriano.