Anatoliy Trubin joined the pantheon of goalscoring goalkeeper greats on Wednesday night as he bonked home a 98th-minute header to keep Benfica in the Champions League.
His crowning moment had all the ingredients: drama, consequence, ecstasy.
Jose Mourinho went crazy on the touchline. Benfica’s subs invaded the pitch. Their opponents, Real Madrid, were dragged into the play-offs. Marseille, who were watching on from Bruges, were knocked out of the tournament altogether.
There’s something special about when a goalkeeper scores, maybe because of the novelty. You know that, in all likelihood, this man or woman will never score again. And most of the time, they’re last-minute goals in significant games, otherwise why would the goalkeeper even be up?
Trubin’s header got us thinking about some of the greatest goalkeeper goals ever, from long-distance hoof-its to overhead kicks.
Without further ado, here they are.
Anatoliy Trubin’s goal for Benfica was the latest in a long line of goalkeeping heroics
Oscarine Masuluke
Oscarine Masuluke nearly won the global goal of the year award for his bicycle kick in a South African Premiership game in 2016.
The Baroka stopper struck from the edge of the area in the 96th minute to equalise against giants Orlando Pirates and write his name into history.
As it happened, that goal saved Baroka from relegation: they eventually avoided the automatic drop by a point, and stayed up via the demotion play-offs.
Masuluke’s goal was nominated for the 2017 Puskas Award and garnered 27.48 per cent of the vote, only finishing second behind Olivier Giroud’s scorpion kick for Arsenal against Crystal Palace.
Jimmy Glass
Jimmy Glass’ goal for Carlisle against Plymouth in 1999 simply has to go down as one of the most iconic moments in English football history.
Carlisle were heading out of the Football League until Glass leathered in a shot from close range to make it 2-1 and save them from relegation, sparking a pitch invasion.
Remarkably, it was only his third game for the club as he had been drafted in from Swindon on an emergency loan. And yet we’re told never to fall in love with a loan player.
To make it all the better, the commentary was breathless. The man with the microphone sounded winded, such was the stupefying drama of the moment.
Alisson
Alisson scored a stoppage-time header away at West Brom in May 2021 to keep Liverpool’s Champions League hopes alive – and the goal had far greater resonance than most would ever realise.
The 2-1 victory gave Liverpool the confidence to go and win their final two games of the season and qualify for the 2021-22 Champions League, a competition they reached the final of.
Three months earlier, Alisson’s father Jose had died from drowning in a lake. Ths was during the Covid-19, and the Brazilian had to make the heartbreaking decision to stay in England with his pregnant wife Natalia rather than fly home for his dad’s funeral.
Alisson scored just six days after his son, Rafael, was born. The family saw it as a blessing from God and a tribute to his father. ‘We knew we made the right decision of staying here,’ Natalia said.
His mother Magali said: ‘A goalkeeper’s mother can never celebrate a goal. A goalkeeper never scores! I screamed like I’ve never screamed in my life. Neighbours could hear me. I didn’t care. It seemed like a blessing.’
Manager Jurgen Klopp summed it up as such: ‘One of the most emotional moments of my life.’
Alisson scored a late winner for Liverpool against West Brom just days after his son was born, and just three months after his father had died
Asmir Begovic
Asmir Begovic scored what was the longest-distance goal in football history when he struck from 91.9 metres out for Stoke against Southampton in November 2013.
Only 13 seconds had passed in the Premier League fixture when he managed to lob Artur Boruc by hoofing a backpass first-time from well inside his box.
The sheer weight of the occasion – a Premier League match against a seasoned goalkeeper – means this one pips its successor as the furthest-out goal.
Newport County goalkeeper Tom King broke the record in January 2021, scoring directly from a goal kick against Cheltenham in League Two from 96.01 metres out.
Asmir Begovic scored the longest-distance goal ever by a goalkeeper at the time in 2013
Rogerio Ceni
It’s hard to pick just one from Rogerio Ceni’s catalogue of bangers because he scored a staggering 131 goals throughout his career.
Rub your eyes, pinch yourself, whatever you need to do to make sure you’re not dreaming, because you did read that right: Rogerio Ceni, a Brazilian goalkeeper, scored 131 goals. Well, some say 129, others say 132. Brazilian football’s record-keeping can be sketchy.
Sixty-nine of them were penalties. Sixty one of them were free-kicks, which makes him one of the most prolific set-piece scorers of all time. No goalkeeper comes close to his scoring record.
The great Kaka said that Ceni was considered a ‘myth,’ so spectacular was he. His career spanned an enormous 1,209 games and he won the 2002 World Cup, 2005 Club World Cup, and various Brazilian league titles.
Daily Mail Sport’s favourite is probably the inswinging free-kick he scored for Sao Paulo against Corinthians in 2011. An absolute peach.
Alberto Brignoli
Alberto Brignoli’s goal rescued Benevento from the pits. Well, sort of.
The Serie A debutants had lost all 14 of their first matches in the Italian top flight, setting a record for the worst-ever start to a season in Europe’s top five leagues.
But in the 15th game came a ray of hope. In December 2017, facing AC Milan at home, they were 2-1 down in the 95th minute when they found themselves with a free-kick.
With a confidence belying the club’s dire situation, the goalkeeper flung himself into the throng in front of the six-yard box and bulleted a header past a flabbergasted Gianluigi Donnarumma to snatch a triumphant solitary point.
Sadly for Benevento – and then-head coach Roberto De Zerbi – Brignoli’s heroics would fail to bring about a sea-change. The club would win just six more matches that season before their inevitable relegation.
Ivan Provedel
Ivan Provedel became just the fourth goalkeeper ever to score in the Champions League proper with a 95th-minute equaliser for Lazio against Atletico Madrid in September 2023.
On his Champions League debut, he headed home with the last touch of the game to rescue Lazio a point. It was the first time a goalie had scored in the Champions League since Vincent Enyeama thudded home a penalty for Hapoel Tel-Aviv against Lyon in 2009.
Blue smoke rose from a flare flung onto the pitch as the Stadio Olimpico roared in ecstasy to celebrate the sensational moment.
Meanwhile, Provedel’s team-mates lifted him high and paraded him in front of the fans at full-time.
Interestingly, he didn’t celebrate the goal that euphorically himself. He later explained: ‘I don’t think I realised anything at that time. In football, both good and bad times are fast. We’re playing in the league on Saturday where we aren’t doing well. I’m enjoying it tonight but we got a point, we didn’t win.’
It takes a certain mentality to suppress the joy of a 95th-minute leveller.
Ivan Provedel became a Lazio hero when he equalised late on against Atletico Madrid in 2023
Peter Schmeichel
How could we omit Peter Schmeichel, the man who made goalkeepers scoring a thing in the Premier League?
In the first nine seasons of Premier League football, no stopper contributed a goal at the other end. Then, in October 2001, in his only season at Aston Villa, Schmeichel came along.
It wasn’t the most beautiful goal. A scruffy volley from inside the box against Everton, one that was almost stopped on the line but forced its way in.
He had been tempted back into English football by manager John Gregory on a one-year deal, having already been winding down his career in Portugal.
‘Peter was carrying a thigh injury to his right leg, he was doing all his kicking with his left foot, but that still didn’t stop him scoring with his right,’ Gregory observed.
Villa still lost 3-1, but Schmeichel had bagged the last goal of his career and made Premier League history aged 37.
PLUS: HANS-JORG BUTT’S JUVENTUS VENDETTA
Whilst Champions League goalscoring ‘keepers might be few and far between, one has the distinction of netting in the competition an eyebrow-raising three times.
And Hans-Jorg Butt’s susprising statistic becomes unlikely by the virtue of his goals coming at three different clubs.
The German goalkeeper found the back of the net for Hamburger SV, Bayer Leverkusen, and Bayern Munich during his 15-year career in Europe, but most curiously of all, each goal came against the same team.
Whether Butt had a visceral dislike for Juventus and if the Old Lady were just sincerely unlucky to come up against a goalkeeper who was a known marksman from the spot on three separate occasions during three separate campaigns, it’s unknown. But the keeper’s predeliction for scoring penalties saw the Turin side bested in 2000, 2001, and 2009, all by the same left-sided strike.
Butt was such a coolhead taking penalties that he remains the Bundesliga’s highest-scoring custodian, having netted 26 out of 31 penalties taken.
