Yes, yes, this is clear pro-Bergkamp bias from the Guardian. But where else could we start? Part of the joy of the Joy of Six is in selecting the obscure, from 0-0 draws in 1872 to Leicester v Shrewsbury, yet sometimes the obvious is irresistible and the hell wit' iconoclasm: the rib-eye at the Hawksmoor; the most played song on your iPod; the alcohol at JD Wetherspoon; and, for this list, the most celebrated first touch of all, from Dennis Bergkamp against Argentina in 1998.

Bergkamp always said he took more pleasure from creating than scoring, like a lover who takes more pleasure from giv ... well, you get the point. That principle applies even to his own goals. He is, uniquely, someone whose greatest goals are defined more by the first touch than the subsequent finish: Argentina, Leicester, Newcastle*, Spurs. Sometimes, as at Wembley in 1993, the deft first touch was also the finish. But in most cases the first touch would have meant nothing if he had not finished it with an equally adept second and third touch. As Bergkamp said in the Blizzard of his goal against Argentina, "it's like your life has led up to this moment".

The goal would not quite have been quite the same had anyone else scored it. Given Bergkamp's unashamedly aesthetical nature, the moment was almost too perfect. In three seconds, he produced three touches of the purest genius to win the match. We've seen many players control a ball with a telescopic leg, but to do so with your other foot off the ground as well, while sprinting, in the last minute of an immense World Cup quarter-final ... it's the sort of thing that makes the angels stop what they're doing and makes grown men lose it all: plot, dignity, voice. As Jacob Steinberg said in his excellent Retro MBM of the game, the goal was "one of the greatest that will ever be scored in any football match at any time in any place".

Even Bergkamp couldn't believe it. He thrust his hands over his face in disbelief, a lovely gesture and perhaps subconscious nod to Rinus Michels' similar reaction when Marco van Basten scored his legendary volley in 1988. When it comes to football the Dutch have an imagination like no other, yet sometimes they even shock themselves.

* Part of a sub-genre of first touches, those where the ball is not difficult to control but the touch is ingenious. Others include Edmundo, Tuncay, Preben Elkjaer's devastating change of pace, and Mark Hughes giving a whole new meaning to 'chipping the goalkeeper'.

The first touch is the most exclusive and inaccessible of all football skills, the thing that separates the great from the chaff. You can't get lucky, you can't fake it. It's a fierce meritocracy, not a club you can join because you've had a cameo on The Only Way Is Essex or you once did shots with Frankie Cocozza. Only geniuses need apply for a list like this. Not today, Carlton, no, and not ever. Most players, as George Best said, "can trap a ball further than I can kick it". The others, the select few, have velvet and velcro in their boots. Rarely has that been more obvious than it was with Roberto Baggio's late equaliser for Brescia against Juventus in 2001. It's not for us to say whether it's the greatest first touch of all time, but it's in the top one.

Andrea Pirlo's lofted through ball was a beauty, yet Baggio still had all sorts of difficulties. The ball was dropping over his shoulder – one of the hardest to control – and the fact he had to curve his run added to the general disorientation; in addition, the Juventus goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar had advanced to within a few yards, reducing his margin for error to almost nothing. It seemed there were only two options: swing a boot and pray to Buddha, or go round Van der Sar by clipping the ball on the half-volley to the right. Instead Baggio went round Van der Sar by cushioning the ball on the volley to his left. He also intuitively decided to do so with the toes rather than the top of the foot, which increased the risk but meant that, if he got it right, he would have a little more control and a little more softness in the foot. He got it right all right, producing a wonderful rubber-ankled flick that evoked an Indian batsman wristily whipping the ball off middle stump for four.

The precision of that touch is staggering. It had to be soft enough to tantalise Van der Sar and make him think he could reach it, but firm enough to ensure he couldn't. Baggio judged it perfectly, and walked smoothly round Van der Sar to score perhaps his greatest goal. It was a vital goal, too. Not only did it come against his old club*, but it kickstarted one of the greater escapes. Instead of losing their fourth game in a row, Brescia had a vital point away to Juventus, and they would not lose again all season: this was the start of an 11-game unbeaten run that took them from the relegation zone to eighth place, their highest finish since 1946.

* Mind you, by the end of his career most of Baggio's goals were against his old clubs. Has there ever been such a glamorous journeyman?

Our excuse for including this is that, if you say the words quickly, Stojkovic sounds like a bit of joyofsix. But really it's just indulgence. Some goals evoke childhood as easily as an old Now cassette or an episode of Neighbours with Daphne and Clive Gibbons. Every football geek worth his salty tears of adolescent loneliness has such moments tattooed on his or her brain; goals they failed to replicate at school, that they replayed so often on the VHS that in the end they were just left with a crackle, a squiggly line and a parent who didn't believe it was a football video.

Dragan Stojkovic's delicious deception against Spain at Italia 90 is definitely one for the memory box. As the ball looped towards him he shaped like a man who was going to volley the bejesus out of it; instead, as Martín Vásquez slid past him like a fire engine going to the wrong fire, he killed the ball dead, took another touch and then passed it gently into the corner. It was a femme fatale of a first touch: knowing, sensual and thrillingly dishonest. It was also so low-key as to be almost minimalist, but then genius had always done a nice line in economy. Stojkovic was magnificent that afternoon; a wonderful personal performance ended with a brilliant extra-time winner.

(Other favourite first touches from childhood, since you asked, include Diego Maradona, Luis Fernández and Ray Kennedy.)

Now this is a Cruyff turn.

So far we've dealt with first touches that have been part of a package, a set-up for the second and maybe third touch. Yet sometimes the first touch is an end in itself; the challenge is no greater than to tame the beast with nothing more than a relaxation of the foot. Then you can decide what you're going to do with it. There have been a couple of recent gems from Mario Götze and Andrés Iniesta; our favourite, however, is this hilariously nonchalant touch from Ronaldinho earlier this year, when he killed a steepler stone dead as if it was the most routine thing in the world. As a simple piece of ball control, it is hard to top.

The foot is not the only part of the body with which you can control the ball. Just ask Thierry Henry, or half of Ireland. There are other parts of the body that are legitimate, as well, and have produced delicious first touches: Eric Cantona's regal calf flick against Manchester City, and Lionel Messi ingeniously allowing the ball to skim off his head at Mallorca last season. Then there is Zinedine Zidane's chest control against Portugal at Euro 2000, one of the highlights of a glorious performance. Technically he needed two touches to control it, but the rest of us would have needed 20. The first touch is magnificent. Like Bergkamp, he had both feet off the ground at the time; in fact his body was contorted like that of a man halfway through the Fosbury Flop. The balance is spellbinding, because the ball thumps Zidane's chest almost as hard as his head thumped Marco Materazzi's chest 10 years later. Don't try this at home. Don't even try it on a Saturday afternoon, or you'll end up in a heap having pulled muscles you didn't even know you had.

(There are some other great Zidane touches here, including a staggering effort against Norway.)