Goals scored by goalkeepers are a somewhat rare event in
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
.
Goalkeepers spend the majority of a match in the
penalty area
The penalty area or 18-yard box (also known less formally as the penalty box or simply box) is an area of an association football pitch. It is rectangular and extends 16.5m (18 yd) to each side of the goal and 16.5m (18 yd) in front of it.
Wit ...
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.
The most prolific goalscoring goalkeepers are those who take
penalties
Penalty or The Penalty may refer to:
Sports
* Penalty (golf)
* Penalty (gridiron football)
* Penalty (ice hockey)
* Penalty (rugby)
* Penalty (rugby union)
* Penalty kick (association football)
* Penalty shoot-out (association football)
* Penalty ...
or
free kicks. Other occasions where goalkeepers sometimes score include
set piece
In film production, a set piece is a scene or sequence of scenes whose execution requires complex logistical planning and considerable expenditure of money. The term is often also used more broadly to describe a sequence in which the film-maker's ...
s where a goalkeeper joins an attack as a team is chasing a goal in order to prevent a defeat, or from
goal kick
A goal kick is a method of restarting the play in a game of association football. Its procedure is dictated by Law 16 of the Laws of the Game.
Award
A goal kick is awarded to the defending team when the ball goes out of the field of play by cr ...
s or otherwise regular clearances which travel the length of the
pitch into the opposite goal. These types of instances are generally extremely rare and when they do happen it is generally considered a fluke or a stroke of luck rather than the intended consequence.
Records
The record for most goals is held by the Brazilian
Rogério Ceni
Rogério Mücke Ceni (; born 22 January 1973) is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who is in charge of São Paulo FC.
He is considered one of the all-time greatest Brazilian goalkeepers and is recognised by the Inter ...
, with 131 goals.
He scored his 100th goal in a 2–1 win for
São Paulo
São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...
on 27 March 2011.
In addition to having the second most goals (67),
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
an
José Luis Chilavert
José Luis Félix Chilavert González (; born 27 July 1965) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Sportivo Luqueño, Guaraní, San Lorenzo de Almagro, Real Zaragoza, Vélez Sarsfield, RC Strasbourg, ...
has recorded the most goals scored in international matches (8), is only the second goalkeeper to score a
hat-trick
A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three.
Origin
The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...
, and in 2000, while playing with
Vélez Sarsfield, he and
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
goalkeeper
Roberto Bonano
Roberto Oscar Bonano (born 24 January 1970) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Already in his 30s, he moved from River Plate to Spain where he spent the remainder of his 17-year professional career in representation ...
with
River Plate both scored in the same
Copa Mercosur
The Copa Mercosur (, pt, Copa Mercosul , "Mercosur Cup") was a football competition played from 1998 to 2001 by the traditional top clubs from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile. The competition was created by CONMEBOL to generate TV m ...
match.
On 2 November 2013,
Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...
goalkeeper
Asmir Begović scored a goal which was the fastest for a professional goalkeeper in football history (13 seconds).
On 27 April 1985,
SV Darmstadt 98 goalkeeper
Wilhelm Huxhorn
Wilhelm Huxhorn (; 20 September 1955, in Pfungstadt – 15 April 2010) was a German goalkeeper and record holder. He played 221 matches for SV Darmstadt 98. In 1985, he scored a goal from away which earned him an entry in the Book of Records. ...
broke the record for the longest goal in football history (103 metres / 112.6 yards), in a match against
Fortuna Köln
Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until a ...
. However, the longest goal to have been officially recorded in the
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
was scored by
Tom King of
Newport County, on 19 January 2021 against
Cheltenham Town
Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league sy ...
. The goal was confirmed to be long.
List
The following list comprises goalkeepers who have scored in a professional national or international competition.
Bold names indicate keepers active during the 2022–23 season.
See also
*
List of top international women's football goalscorers by country
*
*
List of top international men's football goalscorers by country
*
List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals
In total, 76 male footballers to date have scored at least 50 goals with their national team at senior level, according to FIFA documents and RSSSF statistics. Since October 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been also publish ...
*
List of outfield association footballers who played in goal
A relatively small number of outfield association footballers have played in goal during a match, usually due to the injury, dismissal or other unavailability of the usual goalkeeper.
List of players
{, class="wikitable sortable"
, -
!Date
!Nam ...
*
List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals
In top-level football competitions, 23 players have scored 500 or more goals over the course of their career in both club and international football, according to research by the , first published in 2007. Taking into account competitions of a ...
*
List of goalkeepers who have scored in the Premier League
References
{{reflist
Goalscoring goalkeepers
+
Association football records and statistics
Association football player non-biographical articles