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When they say everyone remembers the winners only they are right – you remember goals that went in, but do you remember the goals that never were? Ones where brilliant foreplay were followed by all sorts of heartbreakers – saves and near misses, balls floating inches away from goal, or clanging off the crossbar and of course the ones that were wrongly disallowed.
Let’s take a gander then, at 5 goals that ‘never were’, goals that could all have entered the list of Greatest Goal of All Time.. if only they had gone in.
Honourable Mentions
Rivaldo (BARCELONA vs Deportivo La Coruna)
Nobody remembers Rivaldo when we talk about the greats of the 90’s – maybe it’s because he was mardy old bugger who rarely smiled and always seemed to be complaining. But he was a true great of the modern game. This effort against Deportivo La Coruna doesn’t make it to the main list because Rivaldo’s effort ended up turning into an assist. But oh my... you will be hard pressed to find three more magical touches anywhere
Ronaldinho (PARIS ST. GERMAIN vs FC Lorient)
The magical Brazilian has scored a number of wonder goals, but this one – in his early years at Paris Saint-Germain could have been his greatest... if he had actually gotten a shot away before being closed by the goalkeeper and the covering defender.
5. Diego Maradona (ARGENTINA vs England)
Before 1986 and the ‘goal of the century’ there was 1980 and the trial run. 20-year-old Diego’s first visit to Wembley laid the marker of greatness – the English should have prepared better. But then again, how do you defend against this force of nature?
Also, Read – War, Football and Maradona: the tale of the sport’s two most famous goals
This ‘great goal that never was’ started just outside the box, but his acceleration and close control are terrifyingly brilliant. The scariest thing, though? His brother asked him that night why he didn’t round Shilton – so six years later, just as he was about to slot the ball in... he rounded Shilton.
4. Pelé (BRAZIL vs Uruguay)
There’s something about the feeling that seeing something completely new, something completely novel, engenders. There were very few footballers who engendered that feeling quite like Edson Arantes de Nascimento. The man you and I know as Pelé.
He also did them with a natural, supple grace that may as well be used in the dictionary to define the term ‘football aesthetics’. He may have scored 1208 goals (as per him, and he counts every single goal he has ever scored even in games held in his back-garden) but his most beautiful was arguably the one that didn’t go in. Uruguay’s Ladislao Mazurkiewicz had absolutely no idea what was happening here - he couldn't believe it, and neither did the watching world.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo (PORTUGAL vs Spain)
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored many a brilliant goal in his illustrious career, but this one, one that didn't go in.. would arguably have been his greatest ever. Considering he's smacked in 574 for club and country, that's saying quite something.
Playing a friendly against big brother Spain, the Portuguese ran at Gerard Pique – all pace and quick feet and bristling menace – before taking the ball past him on the outside. Then he did one of his trademark flick backs (how he goes from 100 mph to 0, with that tall frame of his, still astounds me) before rolling his studs over the ball and teasing it away from an onrushing Xabi Alonso and then completely befuddling both Carles Puyol and Iker Casillas with a sumptuous scoop. The best team in the world at the time had been made to look like a bunch of school kids.
And then Nani rushed in, for no reason whatsoever, and the goals gets ruled out for offside. Wrongly.
For once, that apocalyptic reaction of Cristiano is completely justified.
An honourable mention for Ronaldo’s incredible effort vs. Azerbaijan -
2. Hans Gunter (BORUSSIA MONCHENGLADBACH vs Bayern Munich)
This one has to be the most heartbreaking on the list.
Gunter picked the ball up inside his own penalty box, somewhere near his own goal line before embarking on the kind of long bursting run that helps people discover themselves. It had everything as Gunter traversed the length of the pitch – a lucky deflection to start it off, a nutmeg as he accelerates towards the half-line, a neat one-two as he approaches the box... and a wonderfully crisp finish. It also smacked off both posts before trickling agonisingly away from goal.
His expression at the end of it all – the very epitome of ‘If Only’
1. Lionel Messi (BARCELONA vs Atletico Madrid)
Leo Messi has a goal of all-time competition with himself everytime he sets foot on the field, but his incredible genius (and near unmatched numbers) mask just how many near misses he has had.
There are, in fact, so many that I can (and will) show you a video that contains 10 efforts that could each have become ‘the greatest goal that never was’. My favourite, though, is his near evisceration of Atletico Madrid where he picks up the ball with trademark ‘I-don’t-care-about-anything’ nonchalance before ripping the defense to shreds. It’s 10 seconds of pure magic at the end of the video below
