It is usually born of desperation, a last roll of the dice that can deliver the most extraordinary payoff.
Sometimes, it is pure chaos, a shambolic mix-up destined for the blooper reel.
It does not happen often, but when goalkeepers score, the moment almost always lingers, for better or worse.
Anatoliy Trubin’s towering header in the eighth minute of stoppage time for Benfica against Real Madrid on Wednesday produced one of the most dramatic scenes in Champions League history. The goal not only sealed a stunning 4-2 win over the 15-time European champions, but also propelled Benfica into the final playoff spot on goal difference, a twist worthy of the competition’s grandest stage.
“I didn’t realize what we needed,” the Ukrainian goalkeeper said. “But then I saw everyone telling me to go up. I also saw the manager, so I went up, went into the box and I don’t know. I don’t know what to say. It was a crazy moment.”
No wonder Benfica coach Roger Schmidt celebrated so wildly. The German coach has enjoyed domestic success, but this was new territory on the European stage.
Leading 3-2 going into stoppage time, the Portuguese club needed another goal to climb into the playoffs.
“I remember winning or losing at the last minute, it had happened to me several times before, but in this situation, where we are winning, it’s not enough,” Schmidt said. “You have to change things and take risks.”
It was a risk that paid off, and there is a long history of goalkeepers causing mayhem in the opposition penalty area.
While Trubin’s goal came in European club soccer’s elite competition, veteran keeper Jimmy Glass earned iconic status among Carlisle fans with a last-ditch effort that saved the then-fourth-tier team from dropping out of the English Football League.
In 1999, the on-loan goalkeeper volleyed home a stoppage-time winner against Plymouth to secure Carlisle’s survival, a moment dubbed “The Great Escape.”
“You just try your luck,” Glass said at the time. “Never pick up the goalie, do they?
“I just kept my head down and hit it. I thought I was going to balloon it over the bar, but I couldn’t miss from that distance.”
Manchester United great Peter Schmeichel scored with a header against Rotor Volgograd in the UEFA Cup in 1995. To prove it was not a one-off, he became the first goalkeeper to score in the Premier League in 2001, netting for Aston Villa. More recently, Liverpool’s Alisson glanced in a winner against West Brom in the Premier League in 2021.
Goal-scoring keepers do not always have to be agents of chaos, sometimes they are simply late rescue acts.
Paraguay international Jose Luis Chilavert was prolific and once scored a hat trick for Argentine club Velez Sarsfield by converting three penalties.
According to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, Chilavert, who also took free kicks, scored 67 goals in his career. He remains the only goalkeeper to score a hat trick and is the highest-scoring keeper in international soccer, with eight goals for Paraguay.
The IFFHS says Brazilian Rogerio Ceni is the highest-scoring goalkeeper of all time. According to Guinness World Records, Ceni scored 129 goals in his career.
Colombia’s Rene Higuita, famed for his “scorpion kick” saves and for dribbling the ball out of his penalty area, was another keeper known for scoring from free kicks and penalties.
Accustomed to punting the ball long from goal kicks, keepers have also been responsible for some of the most outrageous long-distance goals, sometimes helped by a strong wind or an embarrassing blunder from the opposing goalkeeper.
Stoke’s stadium is known as one of the windiest in English soccer, and that appeared to help Asmir Begovic in 2013 when he scored after just 13 seconds against Southampton.
Begovic entered Guinness World Records for the longest goal ever scored, measured at 91.9 meters. It did not come without assistance, however, as Southampton goalkeeper Artur Boruc was wrong-footed and left red-faced as the ball bounced over him.
“It’s a cool feeling, but it was a fortunate incident,” Begovic told the BBC. “I feel a bit bad for Boruc.”
Tottenham’s Paul Robinson similarly caught out Watford’s Ben Foster with a long-range effort from his own half in 2007.
And to prove it is not a modern phenomenon, Tottenham’s Pat Jennings scored from his own penalty area against Manchester United in 1967.
Bobby Charlton, who played in that match, later said: “I immediately turned around to look at the referee because I thought maybe that’s illegal, I’d never seen it done before.”
