Tuesday 10: Goalscoring goalkeepers
Tuesday 15 December 2009 12:30
A couple of crucial goals from netminders in last week's Champions League sent FFT.com's Dan Ross scurrying to the archives...
Hans Jörg Butt
No relation to midfield minesweeper Nicky, German goalkeeper Butt scored one of the four Bayern Munich goals that kept Juventus out of the Champions League knockouts for the first time since the 2000/01 season.
The media went mad, but his superbly-struck penalty was nothing out of the ordinary.
Butt has a fine penalty record, and has scored more than 30 goals in his career – 19 in an impressive four-year spell at Hamburg, including nine in one season.
In case you were wondering, that’s as many goals as England striker Emile Heskey has managed in the last two years.
Sinon Bolat
Standard Liege stopper Sinon Bolat made himself a hero last week, and proved that, like buses, goalscoring goalies come in twos.
After Tuesday night saw Bayern’s Butt fire one in from the spot, Bolat went one better.
Losing to AZ Alkmaar in the fifth minute of stoppage-time, the Standard faithful had all but given up hope of a third-place finish and that Europa Cup parachute.
But Bolat refused to admit defeat and arrowed a sublime header from a free-kick to level the game to send the Belgian outfit into the Europa League at the expense of their opponents.
He also showed the world how to celebrate a goal properly.
Rogerio Ceni
The king of goal-grabbing goalies, São Paulo's Rogério Ceni is officially recognised by FIFA as being the highest-scoring goalkeeper in the history of the game.
But unlike many fellow glory-seeking glove-botherers, he hasn't just collected easy goals from 12 yards.
Ceni has an uncanny ability to put the ball in the back of the net from outside the box too, notching almost 50 strikes from free-kicks in a remarkable career – see this clipreel for evidence.
His combination of balding pate and leggings may not make him as marketable as Becks, but his dead-ball prowess makes him just as dangerous – and, to São Paolo fans, just as iconic.
Jose Chilavert
A legend on computer games and YouTube alike, the Paraguayan was a terrific shot-stopper and a terrifying dead-ball marksman.
As he jogged up from his box to take a crucial free-kick, he struck fear into defences with an impressive aura (and terrifying pitbull mush).
He knocked in more than 60 goals in his career, and, like Sinon Bolat, revelled in the celebration of every one of them.
Though Rogerio Ceni is top of the scoring keepers, Chilavert managed something Ceni could not by scoring for his country – eight in total, half of which ensured their qualification for the 2002 World Cup.
He was also the first goalkeeper in history to bag a hat-trick when he fired a treble past his Ferro Carril Oeste counterpart for Velez Sarsfield in 1999.
Pat Jennings
The 1967 Charity Shield was the birthplace of goalkeepers getting ideas above their station – because this was the game in which Spurs goalkeeper Pat Jennings scored against Manchester United.
The Northern Irish international quite lazily hammered a giant clearance that flew past his unfortunate opposite number Alex Stepney.
Note the total lack of celebration from Spurs players and low-level remonstrations from United.
Stepney was unfortunate not purely for the manner in which the goal was scored, but that the action was filmed by Match of the Day, and people like us still talk about it 40-odd-years on.
Any keeper in the 2003/04 season
There must have been something in the water six years ago – keepers couldn’t stop scoring. Sort of.
Sunderland's Mart Poom bagged the first in September 2003 at the end of a Division One game between Sunderland and his former side Derby, heading in an equaliser with seconds to spare.
Four days later Leeds goalkeeper Paul Robinson scored a stunning last-minute header against Swindon Town in the Carling Cup. (He would later bag a famous 80-odd-yard free-kick for Spurs that bounced over the head of Watford's Ben Foster).
Not to be outdone, Blackburn's Brad Friedel grabbed a goal in a game at Charlton.
With the match nearing injury time, the big American went up for a corner and duly equalised – alhough a spectacular goal from Claus Jensen moments later somewhat stole Big Brad’s thunder.
Peter Schmeichel
The Great Dane netted an impressive 13 goals in his long and distinguished career, but by far his most famous strike was his equaliser for Manchester United against Rotor Volgograd in 1996.
On the cusp of elimination from the UEFA Cup, Schmeichel took matters into his own hands. Charging ominously up the field, he took his place in the box for a United corner.
His presence in the Russian outfit’s penalty area caused panic – and rightly so, as he proceeded to thump home a header to give some hope to his fans and shame his team-mates.
Unfortunately Big Pete’s heroics were to be in vain, as United were still knocked out on away goals.
Scott Barrett
How about a goalkeeper’s strike winning the league? Colchester stopper Scott Barrett basically did just that with a goal in injury time against Wycombe in 1992.
The match was level when a mammoth Barrett punt downfield took an equally mammoth bounce and ended up in the back of the Chairboys’ net.
Not only did that goal win the game, it also won them promotion to the Football League as Colchester went on to lift the Conference title. On goal difference. Over Wycombe. You couldn’t make this stuff up...
Andres Palop
The keeper with the wonderfully onomatopoeic name wrote himself into Sevilla folklore with his performances in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup.
With the Andalusians trailing in injury-time of a last-16 tie against Shakhtar Donetsk, something special was urgently needed.
Up popped Palop to score a dramatic equaliser from a 94th-minute corner.
The marking was shocking but the header flawless, and the commentary team brilliantly sum up the excitement buzzing around the ground as the game moved into extra-time.
The rojiblancos won the tie 3-2 and eventually lifted the trophy. Palop played the hero again in the final, saving three penalties against Espanyol as his side became only the second team to successfully defend their title.
Jimmy Glass
Carlisle United vs Plymouth Argyle 1999: a match that will forever be remembered by football fans across the nation.
With 10 seconds left, a corner is awarded. The two sides are drawing 1-1 in the last game of the season.
An on-loan goalkeeper, playing his final game at his temporary club, shrugs his shoulders and jogs up to join the desperate attack.
A header is parried his way and he sweeps it into the net, preserving the Football League status of his club at the expense of Scarborough.
One of the most dramatic goals ever scored - Roy of the Rovers stuff – and watching it 10 years on, you still get goosebumps.
Especially if you support Scarborough.
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About Dan Ross
Ever since he spent an evening guiding Alan McInally into the upper echelons of a table football tournament, life has not been the same for Dan. That night, coupled with his avid following of Kevin Keegan/Alan Shearer/Chris Hughton's (delete as appropriate) Black and White Army Saga™ has left everything else a particularly dull shade of grey.
Writing FourFourTwo.com's listy features and working part-time at
Calcio Italia magazine has given him a taste of the high life and, now in his last few months at university, Dan spends his time counting the days until poverty will bring him back to reality - unless there is a reader with a burning desire to pay someone to compile occasionally-relevant data into lists...