While Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann's skills from set pieces have long been widely applauded, Real Valladolid midfielder Ruben Alcaraz has emerged as another freekick specialist.
The 27-year-old's goal against Valencia was his second from a freekick this season, which is as many as the Atletico Madrid forward and just one fewer than the Argentine.
Players with most freekick goals this LaLiga Santander season
His first victim was Huesca, against whom he netted a beautiful freekick back in October to assist his team to a narrow 1-0 win at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla.
Although LaLiga Santander fans have discovered his skills from the dead ball after Real Valladolid's promotion to the top flight this season, Alcaraz managed to send the ball into the back of the net from a freekick five times last campaign in the second division.
As well as his contribution up front, he has registered the best figures in terms of recovered balls in the first round of the 2018/19 season with 155 interceptions, followed by Ever Banega (154), Jose Gomez Campana (145) and Jorge Miramon (139).
His performances have attracted the interest of several clubs, both from Spain and abroad, but Real Valladolid remain confident of retaining his services until June.
tropicalda
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Messi free kicks are amazing but what makes them more amazing is how consistently he scores them. Let’s be real, free kicks are rarely scored but whenever Messi is in a good position he seems to score every time. I think they freak out more about how unreal this consistency is rather than the free kicks themselves, although they are pretty good too, Messi scores free kicks like the other guy scores tap-ins.