- Outside of the footLeg and ankle turned in.4
- Under and on the far sideRight foot: the bottom left of the ball.1
- It bends away from your footOff the outside of the striking foot.3
What is a trivela?
The trivela is the art of bending the ball with the outside of the foot.1 The ball curves away off the outside of the striking foot, while a shot with the inside curves the other way.3
| Foot | Trivela bends | Inside curl bends |
|---|---|---|
| Right | Left to right | Right to left |
| Left | Right to left | Left to right |
How to hit it
- Ricardo Quaresma, known for his trivelas: “The key thing to remember is to slice your foot through and under the outside of the ball... so connecting with the bottom left hand corner with your right foot... this will give it the right spin.”1
- Your leg turns inwards. In the one study that measured outside-of-the-foot kicks, the hip and knee rotated further in and the ankle turned in more than in a laces kick.4
- From the side, the kick looked the same as a laces kick in that study.4 The difference is in the turn of the leg and foot, not in the swing.
Why players use it
- For passing, England Football says it’s “quicker and more deceptive than using the inside of the foot, as players don’t have to open their body up”.2
- Roberto Carlos on free kicks: “what I most liked to do – which the keeper didn’t expect – was to hit it with the outside of my foot.”5
What it costs
The laces kick was faster than the outside-of-the-foot kick in the same study: the trivela trades some pace for the bend.4 England Football calls it “a more advanced technique” that “requires a lot of practice to get right”.2 For more pace, see How to shoot with power.
Drill · our proposal
Bend it the other way- Start with passesTen metres to a partner or a wall, outside of your stronger foot.
- Then 10 shots at the far cornerRight foot: aim outside the left post and let it bend in.
- Film from behindCheck that your toes turned in and that the ball bent.
What we can and can’t see
- We seeWhere the ball went and how your body moved around the strike.
- We don’t measure yetSpin, speed or which part of the foot touched the ball. None of the shots from our test sessions is a trivela.
There is little research on the trivela: one study, of which we have read the summary, and players’ own words. Treat this as a starting point.
The inside-of-the-foot version: How to curve the ball. The whole technique, step by step: How to shoot a soccer ball.
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- Reuters in Euronews, 26 June 2018: “Nobody masters the art of the trivela like Quaresma”.
- England Football: different passing techniques, “Outside of the foot”.
- FIFA Training Centre: Katie McCabe, ball-striking precision.
- Katis & Kellis 2010, young players, summary read.
- UEFA: Roberto Carlos on free kicks.