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04th Sep 2014

After Angel di Maria’s beauty last night, here are seven more glorious outside of the boot assists

These lads obviously spent their formative years watching Ciaran McDonald do what he does best.

Conor Heneghan

These lads obviously spent their formative years watching Ciaran McDonald do what he does best.

There are few purer sights in football than watching a player strike a ball sweetly with the outside of the boot and then to see that ball either end up in the back of the net or end up in the path of a player who’s about to rattle the onion sack.

Angel di Maria provided a glorious example of it last night with an assist for Sergio Aguero’s goal and inspired by that, we decided to scour the web for footage of players who have done likewise in recent years.

Considering that the goalscorers usually hog all the credit, we’ve decided to heap praise on the providers this time around and have come up with seven of our favourites from recent years.

If there are any glaring omissions, feel free to let us know in the comment box below (there were some efforts we wanted to include but the footage has unfortunately been removed) but without further ado and in no particular order, enjoy some of our favourite outside of the boot assists from down through the years.

You’re welcome.

Mario Balotelli (Italy v Luxembourg)

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

Kwadwo Asamoah (Ghana v Portugal)

Diego Maradona (Match for Peace)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bY9jdt1adM

Isco (Real Madrid v LA Galaxy)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGIoUq93QFo

Andy Reid (Nottingham Forest v Watford)

Steven Gerrard (Liverpool v Fulham)

Keith Fahey (St. Patrick’s Athletic v Athlone)