David James up front and red card for having a wee: 10 most bonkers goalkeeper moments

Publish date: 2024-08-05

Back in 2005, Manchester City needed to beat Middlesbrough at home to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

The score was 1-1. There were only a few minutes left.

So manager Stuart Pearce pushed goalkeeper David James up front in a premeditated plan - he had even had an outfield shirt printed for the goalkeeper.

It didn't quite work out, though. As Pearce reminisced last year: "I thought he was going to get on the end of things but he ended up playing as a number ten. He ended up tripping over the ball. He had the worst impact of all time."

But goalkeepers are famous for their unusual behaviour. Here we take a look at some of the other most bonkers and outrageous moments from the men between the sticks.

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‘A frustrated forward’

OK, so Jimmy Glass is definitely not the only goalkeeper to get shunted up front. He’s not even the only goalkeeper to score an important goal. But he’s the only goalkeeper to score the goal that kept his side in the League.

Carlisle United needed to beat Plymouth to have any chance of survival in May 1999 – but the score was 1-1 heading into injury time. The Cumbrians had a corner with seconds left on the clock.

Enter the goalkeeper.

“I was always a frustrated forward,” Glass said later. “I looked over to [manager] Nigel Pearson and he waved me on. That was it, it all came down to that last kick. If I could bottle that feeling I would be a very rich man now.

“It fell straight to me and the rest is history.”

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Record-breaker

Nobody can come close to the records set by Jose-Luis Chilavert, though.

He didn't just head up to the other end of the pitch for the occasional corner - he was his side's regular penalty-taker, and wasn't afraid of trying his luck at a free-kick either for club side Velez Sarsfield.

In 74 international caps for Paraguay, he scored eight times - a world record for a goalkeeper.

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Higuita’s famous scorpion kick

Leaving aside the claim that far from being spontaneous, Rene Higuita had been practising this in the pre-match warm-up, seeing it in action was pretty special.

As England’s Jamie Redknapp’s mishit cross sailed towards him from the Wembley right flank in September 1995, the Colombian keeper threw himself forward, flicked his legs up behind him, batting the ball away over his head.

"Human beings are always remembered for their great work, and that was what it was," he told Mundo Deportivo later.

"Children have always been my inspiration. I always saw them in the street or in a park trying out bicycle kicks, and I told them it would be good to do it in reverse.

"And that day in England, I was given the ball that I had been waiting for five years!"

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‘Something off the ball’

Salford City goalkeeper Max Crocombe got a straight red card in the National League North - for "urinating during the game".

In a match against Bradford Park Avenue - which Salford were leading 2-1 - the New Zealand goalkeeper got sent off with three minutes remaining.

Nobody seemed to know what had happened, with Salford's initial tweets describing it as "something off the ball" - but Bradford Park Avenue quickly gave some clarity - adding, "We are not joking."

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Lehmann the expert

He’s in good company, though. Former Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann took a quick toilet break during a Champions League match in 2009 - nipping behind some advertising hoardings to relieve himself while in action for Stuttgart.

He had to get back pretty quickly, though - play was still ongoing and he was needed to deal with a counter-attack from opponents Unirea Urziceni.

"I thought he handled it very expertly," said Stuttgart's director of sport Horst Heldt.

"It was a tricky situation. He could hardly run into the dressing room while play was going on and it reminded me of the Tour de France – sometimes there are simply no options."

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Coronavirus and sport

Kingstonian keeper does a Cantona

Rob Tolfrey took exception to something from the Bognor Regis fans at the end of a Ryman League Premier match in 2017.

So the Kingstonian keeper launched himself into the terraces and proceeded to embark on a punch-up with them.

One of Tolfrey's team-mates later suggested that a Bognor fan had invaded the pitch earlier in the game and swung a fist at him, adding: "It's a game of football...absolutely pathetic."

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The man in the rubber mask

If you looked at a photo of Fred Barber, you might not recognise him.

If he donned one of the scary rubber masks that became his trademark, you might.

Barber, who spent most of his career at Darlington, Walsall and Peterborough United, would put on the mask every time he entered the field of play – and later revealed that what became a habit stemmed from a wager with his Saddlers team-mate David Kelly.

"Before a match at Gillingham there was a bet that I had to wear anything he gave me and in the tunnel he pulls out an old man mask with long silver hair and a wart on its nose,” he told the Northern Echo.

“I had to run to the other end of the field wearing it and remember someone saying that I looked old, even for a goalkeeper. Soon they were singing my name, when normally they'd have been booing.”

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Jelly legs

Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar came up with a cunning plan to put off the opposition in the 1984 European Cup final.

It had all gone down to penalties – and the Zimbabwean faked ‘jelly legs’ as Roma’s Francesco Graziani prepared to take his kick. It clearly worked as the Italian sent the ball flying over the bar – and the Reds won the shoot-out 4-2 to lift the trophy.

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The keeper who came back to life

A goalkeeper stopped breathing three times in a Boxing Day match in 2002 – and was brought back to life by the club .

Bradford Park Avenue's took a massive blow to the chest after an accidental collision with Clayton Donalson of Harrogate Town.

And it took the quick action of physiotherapist Ray Killick to save his life with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation – before he was rushed to hospital with the match abandoned.

Fortunately, the former German youth international suffered no lasting damage.

“I felt like I had been stabbed,” Pfannenstiel recalled.

“I am sorry for the others that the game was not finished because we were winning. I want to be back to help us win when they rearrange the game.”

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