Best soccer goalie

Higuita's 'scorpion kick'
Monday, 30 May 2005.

Only 20,038 were present at Wembley to witness a spectacle later voted one of the 100 greatest sporting moments of all time.

After 22 minutes of a friendly international back in September 1995, Jamie Redknapp floated an aimless cross in to the Colombian penalty area.

As the ball drifted towards goal, Colombian 'keeper Rene Higuita could have caught the ball, but instead elected to clear it with an astonishing kick.

The goalkeeper: "I call it my scorpion kick and I try to do it whenever possible," explains Higuita. "My philosophy is to enjoy myself and to entertain."

The gaffer: "I have only one word to describe it, extraordinary," says England coach Terry Venables.

"I’ve never seen anything like it. They tell me he does it all the time in his own country, that’s probably why his last three managers have had heart attacks."

The legend: "If he’d done that playing for England it would have been his last cap," says England’s World Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks.

"Bobby Moore would have had a quiet word and Jack Charlton would have punched him on the nose. It was incredible, but what’s wrong with a simple catch?"

The cub scout leader: The rash of copycat Scorpions included a Scout leader in Preston who ended up in hospital with a dislocated shoulder.

"I thought I could pull it off," recalls Graham Alston. "The save worked, it was just the landing which went wrong."

The doctor: Dr John Crane, England’s medical officer, warned people not to replicate the move: "It hyper-extends the back and could easily lead to serious spinal damage."