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Top Ten: Goal-Scoring Goalkeepers of 2011

Aranzubia...rewrote los libros historicos (Image credit: Audrey Pilato)

In case you haven’t yet seen Iain Turner’s goal for Preston North End against Notts County from Saturday…

Pretty amazing stuff, right? I mean, how often do you get to see a goalkeeper score a goal? Well, in this age of YouTube’s all-seeing gaze, the answer is: with almost tedious monotony. Join Football Burp in yawning your way through ten more incidences of goalkeepers scoring in 2011 alone…

1. Rogerio Ceni – Recognised by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics as the most prolific goal-scoring ‘keeper in history, the 38 year-old scored his one hundredth goal for São Paulo with this free-kick winner against local rivals Corinthians in March. He has added a further two since then.

2. David Bingham – The San Jose Earthquakes guardian punted past West Bromwich Albion’s Boaz Myhill when the two sides contested a friendly match in June. If Roy Hodgson had any doubts about bringing in Ben Foster – who of course was beaten by Paul Robinson, then of Tottenham Hotspur, while playing for Watford in 2007 – then this could well have swung it.

3. Quillan Roberts – Also from June, here is the young Canadian custodian rescuing a late point for his country in a 2-2 draw with England in the group stage of this summer’s U17 World Cup.

4. Scott Flinders – Hartlepool’s number 1 scored a last-gasp equaliser for his side against Bournemouth in April, on the same day that his fiancee Kate was due to give birth to their first child. “I had my worst game of the season,” said Flinders afterwards, “and to top it off with a goal, it’s from zero to hero I suppose.”

5. Quinonez Wilson – In this Paraguayan second division match between Sport Colombia (eh?) and Cerro Porteno PF, the former side’s goalie scored what could be legitimately described as an ‘eighty yard screamer’ given that it didn’t even bounce on the way in. He then got himself booked for removing his shirt. All in a day’s work for Mr Wilson.

6. Dani Aranzubia – The Deportivo de La Coruña man and one-time Spain international became the first goalkeeper in La Liga history to score from open play with this 95th-minute equaliser at UD Almería in February. It wasn’t enough to stave off Deportivo’s eventual relegation but at least it was conducive to some absolutely wonderful commentary in the following clip.

7. Joerg Siebenhandl – The Wiener Neustadt goalie scored just two minutes into the 2011-12 Austrian top flight season against SV Mattersburg.

8. Andrei Zaitsev – The Zenit St Petersburg youth team ‘keeper, who appears to either share his name with or also be a popular Russian dancer, belted this one in against a young Volga side in June.

9. Neil Kitson – Yet another from June, Antiguan side Rochester Rhinos snatched a “miraculous” 2-2 draw with Antigua Barracuda FC thanks to this badly dealt-with punt from their goalkeeper in stoppage time. You wouldn’t be able to gauge the presumably exciting nature of all this from the commentator alone. All together now: “That’s a goal!”

10. Tyler Piffath – Great goal by the nine year-old back in May – a career highlight to date, dare we suggest? Going by the comments of those watching, he seems to try it a lot so perhaps he has repeated the feat by now. Another noteworthy feature of this video is how utterly alien it is to a British football fan to hear a goal greeted by a yell of “way to go Tyler, woo!”

Honourable Mention

“Wow, that’s amazing!” – “I’ve never seen that live!” Brilliant, Roy of the Rovers-esque crowd comments aside, does anyone know who to credit this one to? According to its YouTube blurb, it preserved a side’s season-long unbeaten record but we’ll be damned if we’re trawling through several pages worth of sporadically profane comments just to find out who scored it. Tell you what: first reader to write in with the right answer, we’ll owe you a Coke.