 | ||
Goals scored by goalkeepers are a somewhat rare event in football. Goalkeepers spend the majority of a match in the penalty area of their own team, a marked area around the goal they are defending in which they can handle the ball, in order to defend their goal. It is highly unusual for a goalkeeper to move far beyond this area and join an attack, as this leaves the defence vulnerable to long-distance attempts until the goalkeeper can return to defend it.
Contents
The most prolific goalkeepers are those who take penalties or free kicks. Other occasions where goalkeepers sometimes score include set pieces where a goalkeeper joins an attack as a team is chasing a goal in order to prevent a defeat, or from goal kicks or otherwise regular clearances which travel the length of the pitch into the opposite goal.
Records
The record is held by the Brazilian Rogério Ceni, with 131 goals. He scored his landmark 100th goal in a 2–1 win for São Paulo on 27 March 2011.
In November 1999, Paraguayan José Luis Chilavert became the only goalkeeper to score a hat-trick with three penalties for Vélez Sársfield in a 6–1 victory against Ferro Carril Oeste, and in the following year he and Argentine Roberto Bonano from River Plate both scored in the same Copa Mercosur match. On 2 November 2013, former Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begović scored the fastest goal for a goalkeeper (13 seconds) in football history and the longest goal in football history (100 yards/98 meters) in a match against Southampton.
List
The following list comprises goalkeepers who have scored in a professional national or international competition.
Bold names indicate keepers active during the 2015-16 season.