“One of my best” was how Spurs and England frontman Harry Kane described his last-gasp halfway line effort that gave the North London side a 3-2 victory over Juventus in the International Champions Cup on Sunday.
But before Tottenham fans start getting ideas above their stations about how this season will finally be the year of the cockerel (not Glenn, the former Southampton stalwart), this sort of caper has been going on for years – so what better time to publish our take on the best halfway line goals ever scored?
DAVID BECKHAM – MANCHESTER UNITED v WIMBLEDON
People of a certain vintage always state that they knew exactly what they were doing when John F Kennedy was assassinated; similar could be said of August 17 1996 when a young Manchester United player called David Beckham scored an opening day stunner against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park.
Off the back of a spectacular Euro 96 staged in England, “New Laddism” was still in-vogue when the new campaign kicked-off and Loaded magazine was still the number one reading material to have in your toilet. “Becks” tapped into this immediately by copping off with Posh Spice and, two years later, he was spotted leaving an Elton John party in Beverly Hills wearing a sarong.
The rest we all know, of course, but one thing is for sure, the boy from South-East London never shirked his responsibilities on the field of play and, had it all gone belly-up, he could have always made a living as a kitchen fitter just like his dad.
NAYIM – REAL ZARAGOZA v ARSENAL
Ask many Spurs fans for their favourite ever moment supporting their team and many will point to the Cup Winners Cup Final in the Parc des Princes in 1995 – a game that Tottenham weren’t even involved in.
That May evening, however, has gone down in Spurs folklore as the night that their former midfielder Mohamed Ali Amar, or Nayim, broke Arsenal hearts with a last-minute extra-time goal for Real Zaragoza to beat the Gunners 2-1 to take the cup to Spain.
The fact that he was 45 yards away from goal and kicked the ball so high in the air that it needed a cameraman with the attributes of a World War Two searchlight operator to locate it, made it even more special and the image of Gunners keeper David Seaman fumbling for air in the back of his net is one that will be treasured forever in half of North London at least.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mstUO7k2dk0
MIRRAI LEME VIERA – FC COMERCIAL v WHO KNOWS?
We’ve all been there on a Sunday morning, turning out for our local pub team whilst suffering the after effects of a heavy Saturday night and we’ve all, at some time or another, thought to ourselves; “Let’s try to catch the keeper out cold from kick-off”. A bollocking often followed from angry team-mates who made a 30-yard dash into the opposition’s box only to see your effort from the halfway line sail majestically onto an adjoining pitch.
A couple of years ago, Brazilian side FC Comercial saw their midfielder Mirrai Leme Viera try the same thing but with devastating success, leaving the goalkeeper rooted to his six-yard line. The 25-year-old will probably never become a household name in his native Brazil or anywhere else in the world for that matter, but thanks to YouTube, he’ll be able to show his grandchildren his greatest moment as a footballer.
JONE SAMUELSEN – ODD v TROMSO
Scoring a goal from the halfway line with your feet is hard enough but Norwegian midfielder Jone Samuelsen went one better in September 2011, when he knocked one in the onion bag from over 50 yards with his head playing for Odd against Tromso.
As soon as the ball nestled in the back of the net the statisticians were working out whether this was actually a world record distance for a goal scored with the bonce and a few days later, thanks to the local constabulary and their tape measure, it entered into the Guinness Book of World Records at an official distance of 58.13 metres.
A month later Samuelsen was made to sweat when reports from Japan claimed that Fagiano Okayama player Ryujiro Ueda had beaten it, but a re-measure discovered he’d fallen short with his effort coming in at a paltry 57.8 metres.
PELE – BRAZIL v CZECHOSLOVAKIA
So what if he missed? So what if it doesn’t qualify for this list?
The Mexico World Cup in 1970 is probably the most iconic in the history of the competition and the fact that it was the first to be broadcast in colour around the world, made it that little bit extra-special. From a British point of view, just look at the state of domestic football around that time: clogging central defenders like Jack Charlton running around decapitating anything that moved on pitches that resembled something from the Somme – so imagine, then, having the chance to watch the world’s greatest players strutting their stuff in the stifling Mexican heat.
When Edson Arantes do Nascimento attempted to beat Czechoslovakia goalkeeper Ivo Viktor from the centre line in Brazil’s opening group game of the tournament, it was the first time that millions around the world had ever seen anything as audacious in their entire lives. The fact that he missed by a whisker makes this an even more iconic moment in the history of the game.
Wouldn’t you rather watch this over and over again than Don Revie’s Leeds United brutes, who were sounding the death knell for football on these shores around the same time?
Harry Kane is 4/1 favourite to be 2019-20 Premier League top goalscorer