"Once or twice a year" - Miralem Pjanic says best free-kick taker in the world Lionel Messi hardly practices them in training

Barcelona loanee Miralem Pjanic has hailed Lionel Messi as the best free-kick taker in the world, claiming the Argentine rarely practices them in training.

Widely regarded as the best player of this generation, the Paris Saint-Germain superstar is a man of many talents. He is an excellent dribbler, can score from any angle, has the vision to pick out his teammates, and is an outstanding set-piece taker.

The 34-year-old former Barcelona ace has scored some excellent free-kicks in his career, with most of them leaving the keeper rooted to the spot.

Pjanic, who is a great free-kick taker himself, is an avid fan of the Argentine’s talents and believes his former Barca teammate is the best at the job. Generally, to be this good of a free-kick taker, one needs to dedicate hours and hours towards it. The Bosnian, however, claimed that the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner rarely bothered with free-kicks during training sessions.

When asked to name the best free-kick taker in the world, Pjanic told La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Football Italia):

“Messi. I’ve practised free-kicks twice a week for 20-30 minutes a day, for my entire life. Maybe he practices one or twice a year, and that’s how he takes them.”

In his illustrious career, Messi has scored 58 direct free-kicks, scoring 50 for Barcelona and the remaining eight in Argentina’s colors. Pjanic, meanwhile, has scored 19 free-kick goals in his club career. The 31-year-old, who spent a season with the Argentine at Barcelona, is currently on a season-long loan deal at Turkish outfit Besiktas.

Lionel Messi’s Argentina are fourth in latest FIFA World Rankings

FIFA recently released the "Men’s World Rankings" for the month of April 2022. Argentina, who were fourth in February’s ranking, have retained their spot this month, but have lost some ground.

Following a 1-1 draw with Ecuador in their final CONMEBOL World Cup qualifier, Messi’s side have seen 1.86 points deducted by FIFA.

Although insignificant, it would certainly irk the Argentines, especially after seeing how well Brazil have done. Their arch-rivals topped the World Rankings in April with 1832.69 points (+9.27 points), becoming the first team to dethrone Belgium since 2018.