Neymar, Paqueta feel dribbling is a skill. Others say it’s showboating. Where do you draw the line?

Javier Pastore, Neymar and Lucas Paqueta all have some things in common in their careers: they are all from South America, they are all playing or have played in Ligue 1, they all wear the No. 10 and they are also the last ones to have done a “rainbow flick,” when a player manages to flick the ball from behind his back over his head and over the head of the defender and back in front of him, in the French league.

Pastore did it against Metz, Neymar vs. Toulouse and Paqueta, the most recent one, pulled it off against Troyes back in September. That evening, the Lyon playmaker received a yellow card from referee Stephanie Frappart, without really knowing if it was for showboating or for vehemently asking for a foul after an opponent appeared to handle the ball. Regardless, it felt like Paqueta had done something wrong.

It was the same feeling when Neymar did it, too — so much so that the Paris Saint-Germain superstar took to social media to defend Paqueta that same evening. “Very sad, this incident. Being booked because of a dribble. It is an asset, regardless of where you are on the pitch or the minute of the game. Last season, it happened to me. This year, it is Paqueta. Honestly, I don’t understand the reason. It is the end of Joga Bonito…”

The “Paqueta incident” sparked a big debate in France over dribbling and showboating. Are there any limits? Is there a point up to which you can go before it becomes excessive? When is dribbling an act in order to get past an opponent, and when is it an attempt to humiliate them? It is not the first time and not the last time that we will have this conversation.

There are three very important words in what Neymar wrote in Paqueta’s defense. The first one is “asset” — dribbling is a skill for a technical player, like pace or height are assets for other types of players….