It’s the way he hits the ball isn’t it? Spiralling around it in his elegant stoop, unleashing it along only the most sumptuous trajectory. Football, as a game, is as simple or complicated as you want it to be. It’s made up of fun elements that stay with you. Even something as basic as how a player hits a ball, can leave a lasting impression.
And Ward-Prowse can hit a ball.
He can ‘put a bit of swazz on it’. He can whip it, he can tonk it, he can smash it, he can ping it, he can thwack it. He can hit it and not feel it. He can catch it on the laces. He can wrap his foot around it. He can catch it almost too well.
Contact between foot and ball account for the vast majority of the sport, and he has technically mastered and then visually perfected the act itself. His right foot is a wand.
You can watch a 30 second time-lapse of this artwork being created here.