India, Feb. 15 -- When was the last time you saw a football player charge at defenders, doing double, triple or quadruple step-overs, a sight that was once a defining image of the game?

There was so much of this in the eras of Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldinho (with added samba hip movements, in his case).

The charge was guaranteed to bring a stadium alive and send a thrill through those watching on TV. It is pretty much extinct in the new age of "structured" football.

The fade of the step-over is just one sign of a bigger change, Spanish footballer-turned-manager Cesc Fabregas has said.

In a recent interview with BBC, the English legend Gary Lineker asked him if "dribbling is becoming a lost art", and Fabregas didn't ...