There are few more breathtaking yet simultaneously hilarious sights in football than long-range own goals, so here are ten videos of such occurrences.
The most recent to fall foul of this rare phenomenon was Alex Scott of Arsenal Ladies, who caught her goalkeeper Sari van Veenendaal off guard with a pass-back from outside the area – some forty yards out, in fact – that ended up nestling in the back the net.
Fortunately for Scott her side came back to win, but not all of the scorers of these spectacular long-range own goals were ultimately let off the hook:
Alex Scott
As described above:
Lee Dixon
Albeit unintentionally, Scott was continuing something of an Arsenal tradition – check out this absolute screamer from Lee Dixon against Coventry City in 1991, as recalled by David Seaman:
“Nice one, Dicko.”
Frank Sinclair
A bit of a legend in terms of own goals, Sinclair was playing for Leicester City against Middlesbrough when he put this one away.
He rather caught the cameras off guard with it, so do wait for the replays:
Christoph Kramer
A World Cup winner he may be, but Kramer came closer to evoking his Seinfeld namesake when he plundered this remarkable o.g. while playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach against Borussia Dortmund:
To compound Kramer’s misery, it turned out to be the only goal of the game.
Jianjie Wang
The Shanghai SIPG defender managed to lob his own ‘keeper in the fifth minute of a 2-2 Chinese Super League draw at Shijiazhuang Yongchang:
Josh Rose
It wasn’t just this amazing 60-yard own goal that denied Australian side Central Coast Mariners a place in the AFC Champions League – after all, they were already 2-0 down to Guangzhou R&F of the Chinese Super League when it happened – but what a way to seal your fate:
Stefan Seufert
This effort, scored by Schweinfurt’s Seufert against 1860 Munich’s reserve side in Germany’s Regionalliga Bayern (IV), could also be viewed as one of the worst tackles never to cause an injury:
Martin Murray
A beautifully measured curling finish from Cliftonville’s Murray in a match against Dundela:
Sascha Mockenhaupt
Not the furthest out, but still a splendid strike from just outside the area courtesy of VfR Aalen’s Mockenhaupt, scored during a 2-0 loss to SV Sandhausen in Bundesliga 2:
Ben Richards-Everton
This outside-of-the-boot curler, from Partick Thistle v Dundee in the SPFL Development League, is arguably the pick of the bunch:
Richards-Everton’s blushes were spared as Partick still ran out 2-1 winners. He now plays first team football for Dunfermline Athletic and has been capped at England C level.