Rating the best goals in over two decades of Premier League football.
5) Wayne Rooney – Manchester United v Manchester City 2011
Of all the goals in this list, this one would fit best at the end of a cheesy film script. Last minute winners in Manchester Derbies are usually pretty special, but this one just takes the biscuit. Rooney leaps in the air and scores a sublime bicycle kick to send Old Trafford hysterical. Even if he does force his way out of the club, no fan will ever forget this wonderful moment.
4) Tony Yeboah – Leeds v Wimbledon 1995
A ball has quite simply – never been struck as cleanly as this. Yeboah became a Premier League cult hero by scoring wonder goals for Leeds United in the mid-90s. This one’s his best though. The pure definition of ‘Putting your laces though the ball’!
3) Eric Cantona – Manchester United v Sunderland 1996
The goal that symbolises Cantona’s genius more than any other. The first touch, the audacity of the finish, and the sheer arrogance of the celebration sums up everything brilliant about the Frenchman. Puts a smile on anyone’s face, this one.
2) Dennis Bergkamp – Newcastle v Arsenal 2002
You have to watch this goal maybe five times to work out what he has actually done. His touch was so perfect, poor Newcastle defender Nikos Dabizas doesn’t even know where the ball had gone. The neat finish was the encore to what was probably the slickest turn in Premier League history.
1) Paulo Di Canio – West Ham V Wimbledon 2000
That goal. Sheer and utter brilliance. How Di Canio managed to time his jump, and then his scissor kick, so perfectly; before arrowing the ball into the far corner of the net, remains a mystery. The most beautiful goal in Premier League history, scored by one of its greatest mavericks. This goal is why we all love football so much.
COMMENTS