Driven with ferocious power, or curled with accuracy and finesse, a free-kick goal is a beautiful thing. A talented dead-ball specialist is a valuable asset for any side. And in this installment of Icons' Five of the Best series, we bring you five unforgettable strikes from some of the best free-kick takers in the business.

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Roberto Carlos

Is this the best free-kick of all time? Football fans and scientists alike gawped in disbelief at this mind-boggling ‘banana’ free-kick from Brazil left-back Roberto Carlos in 1997. Up against hosts France in international friendly tournament Tournoi de France, Roberto Carlos’ blistering 40-yarder looked to be heading well wide before a remarkable change in trajectory sent the ball curving inside the post past a static Fabian Barthez. Dismissed by cynics as a fluke, in 2010 a team of French scientists developed an equation proving that the flight of the ball was no accident. Take that, cynics!

David Beckham

Is this the best free-kick of all time? David Beckham is a name synonymous with the art of free-kick taking. And this unforgettable effort for England merits inclusion on context alone. And also because we’re English, and therefore biased. Three minutes into stoppage time and trailing 1-2 in this crucial World Cup qualifier against Greece, England desperately need a goal to secure qualification to the 2002 finals. Teddy Sheringham wins the free kick, and Beckham does the rest. “Give that man a knighthood!” bellows the commentator, as Old Trafford erupts.

José Manuel Rey

Is this the best fr-… Ok, you get the point. José Manuel Rey is definitely not a name synonymous with the art of free-kick taking. In fact, you've probably never heard of him. FYI, Rey is a Venezuelan international defender who once played for Dundee (Thanks, Wikipedia), and here he is with an absolute thunderbolt from 45 yards in a World Cup qualifier against Ecuador in 2007. While many go for finesse from a set-piece, Rey takes a rather different approach, with a run-up that starts inside his own half. The South American commentary team enjoy it in typically restrained fashion.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Love him or loathe him (we opt for the former), Icon Cristiano Ronaldo sure knows how to hit a free-kick. Here’s his trademark best for Manchester United against Portsmouth in 2008. Ever the showman, the Portuguese carefully positions the ball 30 yards from goal, takes four measured steps backwards, ignores some advice from Wayne Rooney, exhales with legs splayed, and finally smashes a rasping, dipping missile of a free-kick into David James’ top corner. Before being mobbed by his elated teammates, the Eric Cantona-esque celebration isn't bad either.

Juninho Pernambucano

Never mind Roberto Carlos, Zico or Ronaldinho, the ultimate Brazilian free-kick master is former Lyon midfielder Juninho Pernambucano. Is this swerving effort in a Champions League clash against Barcelona deliberate? You bet it is. But if you need convincing, here’s proof that it wasn’t his first from such an acute angle. Indeed, Juninho, now 37, can score from pretty much anywhere, as shown by this spectacular recent effort for Brazilian side Vasco de Gama.

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See more from our Five of the Best series:

Five of the Best: Penalties

Five of the Best: Goalie Goals

Five of the Best: Penalty Blunders

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As you know icons.com is the world's leading supplier of signed football memorabilia. We've been meeting with world's best players for nearly 10 years now and bringing our customers the best quality products out there.

We were looking back in the archive of our signing photos throughout those 10 years and found these classics from the first Galactico era of Floretino Perez at Real Madrid. Back then we conducted numerous signings with the top players from that team.

Check out the signing photos of the orginal Ronaldo - the World Cup's greatest goalscorer of all-time

We also met the first of Perez's signings, Portuguese legend Luis Figo - signed from arch-rivals Barcelona for a then record transfer fee of £38.7m.

Icons.com also conducted a signing session with the best attacking full back of his era, Roberto Carlos, scorer of possibly the best free kick of all-time

and World Cup winner in 2002.

And as we were meeting all three of these superstars within a few months of each other we were able to create one of the most unique products we've ever had - a triple-signed Real Madrid Galatico photo.

As we only ever had limited supplies of these products they all sold out extremely quickly so unfortunately we don't have any more of them available.

However in a World Cup year there's always the possibility of new signings with these legends.

And if we were ever able to arrange signings with Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham the people who had signed up to the icons.com newsletter would certainly be the first to know. Watch this space.

Today we've launched icons.com on Flickr, the global photo-sharing website. Icons.com on Flickr

First to go up were our photos from most recent signing session with Lionel Messi. And while we were at it we've also uploaded the photos from the last two signings we've done over the past 18 months with the Barcelona legend.

In total we've done four signings with Leo, but we can't currently locate the pics of the first session we did with him back in May 2006 when he was only 18. Bare with us, we're trying to find them and we'll upload them as soon as we work out where we've put them!

From now on we're going to upload the images from our signings sessions so you can see behind the scenes of what goes on when we meet the players. We have to take lots of photos in order to create our Certificates of Authenticity so we there should be a decent collection once we get them up.

We're also going to go back into our archive and bring out the photos from signing sessions we've done with legendary players who we currently don't sell products for on the site. We've conducted signings sessions in the past with the likes of the Brazilian Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Xavi Alonso but as we have sold out of their stuff we don't have them on the current site.

Unfortunately due to some people ripping off our signing photos and product images we've had to add an icons.com watermark to all the photos we upload off our site. Hopefully it doesn't get in the way too much, we just want to protect our images from turning up in unexpected places.

Cristiano Ronaldo sent Manchester United well on their way to a third successive Premiership title with another phenomenal free-kick at the weekend.

His trademark delivery in the 60th minute at Old Trafford left Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Paul Robinson helpless, and with Liverpool only drawing, leaves Utd seven points clear at the top.

It was yet another unstoppable free-kick and you have to ask - is he the greatest free-kick specialist of all time?

Here is our list of top takers:

5. Roberto Carlos. Never seemed to score, apart from that screamer against France in Le Tournoi 1997, but was always fun to watch.

4. Paul Gascoigne.Who can forget that free-kick against Arsenal in the FA Cup?

3. Alessandro del Piero. Better scoring percentage than Ronaldo, (and Beckham) so maybe unlucky to miss out on second spot.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo. The way they dip and swerve they're unstoppable; he's even created his own technique adapted to the modern ball. Genius.

1. Diego Maradona. The greatest of all time. Just watch this. No argument.

OK, so no David Beckham. We all remember that winner against Greece but how many remember the dozens he ballooned over the bar earlier in the game when a chip to the big fella at the back stick would have done the job?

We'd love to hear what you think below...