Messi is Europe's top dribbler ahead of Hazard, Dembele & Sancho

  /  autty

Per the CIES Football Observatory, with data from OptaPro, Lionel Messi leads the rankings of footballers in the top five leagues in successful dribbles per minute.

The analysis looks at players who have played over 1800 minutes in the last year. Another stat in the Argentine’s favour. Messi’s influence is always huge.

He has dribbled successfully once every 19.2 minutes. In second place is Nice player Allan Saint-Maximin, one every 19.8 minutes. Third is Chelsea’s Eden Hazard, one dribble every 21. The Belgian has the best success rate among the players who have tried over 100 dribbles, with 73% effectiveness.

Interestingly there were five players who developed in France among the top eight. That’s Saint-Maximin, Naïm Sliti, Ousmane Dembélé, Marcus Thuram and Jeff Reine-Adelaide, while Hazard was at Lille too.

Lowest minutes per successful dribble in the big-5:

Club(s) - % of successful dribbles - Domestic league matches between 18/02/2018 and 17/02/2019 - At least 1800 minutes played (1500 for current Bundesliga players)

Related: Chelsea Borussia Dortmund Barcelona Messi Hazard Dembele Sancho
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