Every so often in soccer, someone comes along who seems to figure out free kicks in a way that no one else on earth is currently doing so. Pirlo has had a turn as King of the Set Piece. David Luiz had a month or two there. Willian has been great recently. Roberto Carlos, Beckham, Drogba, Ronaldo … all great players who have had a period of time when they just seemed to understand how to kick a soccer ball in a way that no one else on earth could. It comes from a mixture of confidence and absolute peak form, and maybe some small bit of magic.

With all due respect to Hakan Calhanoglu, Dimitri Payet holds the belt right now as best free kick taker alive. The consistency with which he’s doing this, in the moments he’s doing this, are unmatched. He did it again this week, lifting France over Cameroon in the 90th minute of a friendly with this bomb.

He’s on another plane right now. Everyone thought that was going to be a crossed ball to the back post, but Payet wasn’t even going to bother waiting for a teammate to put it in. He was just going to fire the shot in off the post from 30 yards out.

France is appointment viewing right now, if only for those instances when someone gets dragged down anywhere within 40 yards of goal. Payet is that locked in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaYqR_mBAiY