The Joy of Six: goalscoring goalkeepers

Whenever a goalkeeper scores a goal, there are probably people who think that they have committed a crime against nature and who believe that such heretical behaviour will bring forth a storm of biblical proportions as punishment, washing the illogicality away. Yet by the same token, there is something inherently glorious about a goalkeeper who refuses to be constrained by the “rules” of “society”, which is why Stuart Pearce’s brainwave to have Manchester City’s David James galumphing about in Middlesbrough’s area on the final day of the 2004-05 season is a Hall of Fame moment. Weirdly unsettling but also totally adorable, like watching a cat trying to turn a door handle. Ha! Look at the keeper go! He thinks he’s people! He thinks he has opposable thumbs w88 line !

But these are life’s dreamers. Like David Brent refusing to give up on the idea that he was wasted as the manager of a small paper company in Slough, there are goalkeepers who are convinced they are wasted simply operating between the sticks. Fabien Barthez, for instance, was a chilled-out entertainer with delusions of grandeur and it could be argued that no one knows the smell of the onion bag better than a goalkeeper. To catch a thief, you must think like a thief, so to score a goal, you must first let in a goal. Admittedly that’s a stupid argument, but when has that ever stopped the Joy of Six in the past?



Yet while most goalkeepers are kidding themselves, some of these frustrated strikers actually do have something to offer going forward. Of course, leave it to a Brazilian to set the benchmark for his peers. If an English goalkeeper ever scored 112 goals in his career, the likelihood is it would be down to the wind catching 112 agricultural hoofs forward and sending them swirling over his opposite number, but that’s not Rogério Ceni’s style. Ceni, who plays for São Paulo, is that rarest and most cherished of species, a goalkeeper who also happens to be a free-kick and penalty specialist, and stands on top of the goalscoring charts, miles ahead of the rest of the field w88 casino .

His record is not perfect and he has missed penalties, most notably in the last minute of a match against Corinthians last year, but he has also scored a Panenka against the same opponents. It is not clear whether Ceni had his membership of the Goalkeepers’ Union revoked after that.

Having honed his technique, Ceni is as big a threat with a dead ball as any outfield player – Zico once said, perhaps not entirely seriously, that he was better than him at free-kicks – and the joyous scenes when he scored his 100th career goal with a glorious effort from 25 yards were a sight to behold. Now 41, Ceni plans to bring a remarkable career to a close at the end of the season. No doubt he has something big planned for his final game.

2) José Luis Chilavert
Chilavert
José Luis Chilavert scored eight goals for Paraguay. Photograph: Sergio Moraes/REUTERS

Of course, Ceni is not the only goalscoring goalkeeper. He’s just the best goalscoring goalkeeper. But there are others, such as Mexico’s fashion-conscious Jorge Campos, who scored 38 goals, and René Higuita, who scored 41 goals. Until Ceni, though, Paraguay’s legendary goalkeeper, José Luis Chilavert, was the daddy of the lot. He first came to attention in England during the 1998 World Cup, when he became the first goalkeeper ever to shoot direct at goal from a free-kick in the tournament, narrowly missing against Bulgaria. He could be a fiery character and was involved in rows with Roberto Carlos, claiming he only spat at the Brazil left-back to defend himself after being insulted, and Faustino Asprilla, but he also had a humble streak, often shaking hands with the goalkeepers he had scored against w88 mobile .

And he was brilliant. A fine shot-stopper, he won personal awards for his goalkeeping and played for Paraguay 74 times and at two World Cups. He scored eight goals for his country, which is more than any other international goalkeeper, and his free-kicks were outstanding. That left foot knew how to manipulate a football.

Some people, those who have put the bald statistics to one side, say that Chilavert was better than Ceni. They have a point when you consider that Chilavert scored intentionally with a free-kick from the halfway line for Vélez against River Plate in 1996, a goal so good that the cameraman almost missed it and the River goalkeeper was so dumbfounded he simply fell over backwards as the ball flies in. Chilavert celebrated appropriately, both arms outstretched, a look of glee on his face, an amusingly slow jog to nowhere in particularly and, finally, a botched Klinsmann dive that ends up as a belly flop.