Which Soccer Players Managed to Scored Most of Their Professional Goals in a Single Match?
Recently, Watford defender Ngakia found the net twice for Watford against Oxford United to take his career goals total to three from 116 senior club appearances,” wonders Peter Skilton. “Excluding footballers who scored only once, has anybody with over 100 matches managed a higher percentage of their career goals in a single match?”
Denis Boone writes in with the tale of French defender Chalmé. “French right-back Chalmé appeared in 362 games during his career, primarily with Lille and Bordeaux,” he explains. “He scored four career goals, with a hat-trick scored during a single game. He scored all three in Lille’s victory at AC Ajaccio in 2004, recording the most unlikely of three-goal hauls.”
Those three well-taken goals in Ajaccio were the sole goals he scored in 179 games for Lille, while in 167 for Bordeaux, he found the net one time. Actually, twice including his self-scored goal in the 2010 Coupe de la Ligue final against Marseille. Scoring 75% of his career goals in a single match puts Chalmé ahead of Ngakia’s mark (66.7%), but there’s a complication.
Chalmé hung up his boots at his club in 2014 after a loan spell at the Corsican club, who likely remembered his short burst of form a decade earlier. He did return to the game with amateur team his local club, featuring seven times in half a year – and netting once. This reduces his ratio of goals scored in a single game down to 60%, but it feels harsh to penalise him for a post-career stint at semi-professional level.
A brief note, too, for a different French defender: Lilian Thuram. While the original question concerns club careers, plenty of you wrote in to highlight that Thuram made 142 international caps and scored two goals in the same match – the World Cup semi-final against the Croatian team. Sometimes, form is everything.
Players Defying Managers: Part II
Previously in this series we examined players who defied their managers’ instructions. We have additional fantastic examples, so let’s reopen the Disobedience Records for a second look.
Tottenham v Manchester City, Cup semi-final, the 1950s
“The Spurs captain, Blanchflower, made changes to the team during the cup match against Manchester City while they were a goal down,” writes John Tumbridge. “Moving Norman from centre-half to attack, Spurs still lost and the coach, Anderson [no relation], benched the captain for the next match and stripped him of the armband. Within a year Anderson left, Bill Nicholson became manager, Blanchflower was reinstated and the outcome is legendary.”
England vs Albania, World Cup qualifying, April 1989
Another fan notes: “Gazza scored his first England goal in this victory at the national stadium after roaming everywhere’, as per manager Bobby Robson. The post-game comments are marvellous – a wonderful mixture of annoyance, irony and fatherly pride.”
Everton vs Spurs, FA Cup semi-final, 1994-95
The Toffees’ most recent silverware was the 1995 Cup, and it wouldn’t have been possible without one man,” begins Jim Hearson. “Coach Royle? Nah. Goalscorer in the final, Rideout? Almost. Goalkeeping colossus Southall? Nope. The hero was unpredictable forward Daniel Amokachi, who came on uninvited during the semi-final against Spurs, scoring twice to secure Everton a place in the Wembley showpiece against Manchester United.”
Recounting the story to the BBC, the striker said: “Rideout was injured and fell ... I just approached the assistant and told him ‘The gaffer says you need me on’.” Royle was rightly angry at the moment, but more forgiving at the end: “He came into the dressing room and embraced me, gave me his hand and said: ‘Well done, son, but never try that again.’”
Sporting v Barcelona, Champions League group stage, 2008-09
During his time with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona against Sporting, Henry decided to switch wings. He quickly scored to give Barcelona the lead at half-time. Guardiola’s reaction? He substituted Henry for disobeying orders.”
Set-Piece Specialists
“As a West Ham fan, I’m increasingly having to look at previous years for positive memories,” laments a fan. “While recently doing so, I saw that Dimitri Payet netted six set-pieces in the precious year and a half that we had him. Just wondering if there is a more productive set-piece expert in a similar time period?”
One comes to mind: David Beckham scored 27 free-kicks in his time at Manchester United, including eight over several months between March and November 2000. His best period at the club covers the identical timeframe: from May 1999 to November 2000, Beckham netted ten set-pieces – including two raspers against the West Ham. Sorry, Liam.
If it helps, there’s a player currently on West Ham’s books who can better Payet’s statistics: James Ward-Prowse. The set-piece maestro had two great runs with his former club, scoring seven free kicks between November 2019 and February 2021 across two pandemic-interrupted campaigns. He then added six more dead-ball beauties in a ten-month period between 2022-2023.
Knowledge archive
“A Southend-supporting friend insists the club once played a league game at Wembley? Is he joking?” queried Stuart Jacks in 2012.
Ludicrously, he wasn’t. Southend were among two clubs – the Bees being the other – to face Orient in Division Three (South) at the stadium back in 1930, owing to ground improvement work at their home ground. Their official website explain further:
After a game against Torquay (a victory for Orient), Torquay representatives objected to the perimeter fence being too near to the field. League officials was requested to inspect the ground and concluded that changes were needed before further matches could be held; suddenly the Orient found themselves homeless. Hard to believe, the national stadium was suggested and the O’s actually played two league games in 1930 against Brentford and Southend, winning 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. Even now the Orient is the only Football League side to have hosted matches at the iconic venue!
Since then of course, Tottenham followed Orient in playing temporarily at the stadium, albeit in the top flight. Lately, talk of Arsenal upgrading the Emirates – and moving to the national stadium while the construction occurs – has surfaced.
Can you help?
“Aubameyang scored four goals and was sent off in Gabon’s 4-3 win over the Gambia recently,” writes Seb in Berlin. “Which other players have been dismissed after netting a hat-trick or more?”
“In Austria’s 10-0 demolition of the minnows, every outfield player who began the game got a goal, an assist or both,” queries another correspondent. “Is there another side achieved this feat?”
“Among all footballers who have a monument outside the ground of their former club, who played the fewest games for that team?” wonders Masai Graham.
“Interestingly, Tomasson is the first manager to be sacked by {Sw
