Team tactics as well as individual skills are integral for playing association football. In theory, association football is a very simple game, as illustrated by Kevin Keegan's namely assertion that his tactics for winning a match were to "score more goals than the opposition". Tactical prowess within the sport is nonetheless a craftsmanship of its own, and one of the reasons why managers are paid well on the elite level. Well-organised and ready teams are often seen beating teams with more skillful players on paper. Manuals and books generally cover not only individual skills but tactics as well.

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, he won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d'Or. He is the only player ever to have won a World Cup, a Copa América, a Confederations Cup, a Champions League, a Copa Libertadores and a Ballon d'Or. A global icon of the sport, Ronaldinho was renowned for his technical skills, creativity, dribbling ability and accuracy from free-kicks, his use of tricks, feints, no-look passes and overhead kicks, as well as his ability to score and create goals, all prominent characteristics of his early-age background playing futsal. He is known by the nickname "O Bruxo".