Football Rewind Seaman’s hit by Sansation
NOBODY is going to run out of ink writing a list of San Marino’s sporting heroes.
But David Seaman knows the name of one.
He was on the receiving end of the greatest moment in San Marino’s sporting history, a moment that means a computer salesman never has to buy a drink in Scotland.
“People don’t always remember the saves you make,” said Seaman, who won 75 caps for England.
Seaman was not entirely to blame for the moment when arguably the worst football team in the world did the unthinkable and scored against England.
San Marino go into a World Cup qualifier against England at Wembley on Thursday night, ranked 210th out of 210 teams listed on the FIFA World rankings.
And the highlight of their footballing history – not that there have been many – was a goal scored against England.
And it took them only 8.3 seconds to score it.
Defeats against Holland and Norway had left Graham Taylor’s Three Lions needing to beat San Marino by seven clear goals in their final qualifier in Bologna, and Poland to beat Holland, for them to reach the World Cup in the USA.
That was a possibility. What did not seem possible was San Marino scoring.
Only twice had they previously scored in internationals and at the opening whistle they kicked off and went on the attack.
Stuart Pearce intercepted a through ball and nudged the ball towards Seaman, but that computer salesman was behind him, got to the ball a split-second before the England keeper and stretched to toe-poke a right-foot shot into the net.
So quick was the goal that the San Marino manager missed it, while Taylor looked to the heavens as Davide Gualtieri scored a goal he never imagined he would score.
“San Marino is a small country and England is a big country,” he said, years later. “To score against England is incredible.”
England rifled in the next seven goals that night – but failed to qualify.
And, a couple of years ago, Seaman (above) and Gualtieri were reunited for the Harry’s Heroes television programme that brought Three Lions legends together to replay games.
Nine seconds into a match against San Marino, Seaman was celebrating not conceding a goal.
And the ex-arsenal keeper laughed: “I knew that goal was a fluke.”