“Last month, Jeremy Ngakia scored twice for Watford against Oxford to take his career goals total to three from 116 senior club appearances. Excluding players who scored only once, has anybody with 100+ appearances managed a higher percentage of their career goals in a single match?” wonders Peter Skilton.
Denis Boone writes in with the tale of Matthieu Chalmé. “French right-back Chalmé played 362 professional matches during his career, mostly for Lille and Bordeaux,” Denis writes. “He scored four career goals, with three of them coming in a single game. Chalmé netted all three goals in Lille’s 3-0 win at Ajaccio in March 2004, recording the most unlikely of hat-tricks.”
Those three well-taken goals in Corsica were the only ones Chalmé managed in 179 Lille appearances, while in 167 for Bordeaux, he scored once. Well, twice if you count his own goal in the 2010 Coupe de la Ligue final against Marseille. Scoring 75% of his career goals in one game takes Chalmé past Ngakia’s mark (66.7%), but there is a fly in the ointment.
Chalmé hung up his boots at Bordeaux in July 2014 after a loan spell at Ajaccio, who presumably recalled his brief purple patch a decade earlier. He did return to football with fifth-tier side Lège Cap-Ferret, playing seven games in six months – and scoring one goal. That would drop Chalmé’s percentage of goals scored in a single game down to 60%, but it feels harsh to penalise him for a post-retirement jaunt at semi-professional level.
A quick mention, too, for another French full-back: Lilian Thuram. While the original question relates to club careers, plenty of you emailed in to point out that Thuram made 142 France appearances and scored two goals in the same match – the World Cup semi-final against Croatia in 1998. Look, when you’re hot, you’re hot.
The Insubordination Files: Part II
In last week’s Knowledge we looked at players who defied their managers’ instructions. There are some more fantastic examples, so let’s reopen the Insubordination Files for a second look.
Tottenham in Manchester City, FA Cup semi-final, 1955-56
“The Spurs captain, Danny Blanchflower, made changes to the team during the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City while they were losing 1-0, moving Maurice Norman from centre-half to up front,” writes John Tumbridge. “Spurs still lost and the manager, Jimmy Anderson [not that one]dropped Blanchflower for the next match and stripped him of the captaincy. Within a year Anderson was out of the job, Bill Nicholson took over, Blanchflower was reinstated and the rest is history.”
England v Albania, World Cup 1990 qualifier, April 1989
Adam Clark points out: “Paul Gascoigne scored his first England goal in this 5-0 win at Wembley after playing ‘all over the pitch, except the position I told him to play in’, according to manager Bobby Robson. The post-match interview is marvellous – a wonderful mixture of frustration, sarcasm and paternal pride.”
Everton in Tottenham, FA Cup semi-final, 1994-95
“Everton’s last major trophy was the 1995 FA Cup, and it wouldn’t have been possible without one man,” begins Jim Hearson. “Manager Joe Royle? Nah. Goalscorer in the final, Paul Rideout? Close, but no. Goalkeeping colossus, Neville Southall? Nope. That man was mercurial striker Daniel Amokachi, who substituted himself on during the semi-final against Spursscoring twice to earn the Toffees a place in the Wembley showpiece against Manchester United.”
Recounting the story to the BBC, Amokachi, said: “Rideout got a knock and went down … I just went to Willie [Donachie, Everton’s assistant manager] and told him ‘The gaffer says you need me on’.” Royle was understandably furious at the time, but more forgiving at the final whistle: “He came into the locker room and hugged me, gave me his hand and said: ‘Well done, son, but never try that again.’”
Sporting v Barcelona, Champions League group stage, 2008-09
“While playing for Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona against Sporting Lisbon, Thierry Henry took it upon himself to switch wings. He quickly scored to ensure Barça went in 1-0 up at half-time. Guardiola’s reaction? He hooked Henry for ignoring his instructions.” You can watch Titi recount the tale from 5:15 in this video.
Free-kick flurries
“As a West Ham fan I’m increasingly having to look at past seasons for some enjoyment,” weeps Liam Corbett. “While recently doing so, I noticed that Dimitri Payet scored six free kicks in the 18 cherished months that we had him. Just wondering if there is a more prolific free-kick taker in a similar time period?”
One comes to mind: David Beckham scored 27 free-kicks in his time at Manchester United, including eight in as many months between March and November 2000. His most prolific 18-month spell at Old Trafford includes the same period: from May 1999 to November 2000, Beckham scored 10 direct-free-kicks – including two raspers against the Hammers. 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 enjoyed two purple patches with Southampton, scoring seven free kicks between November 2019 and February 2021 across two Covid-affected seasons. Ward-Prowse then hit another six dead-ball beauties in a 10-month spell between April 2022 and February 2023.
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“A Southend-supporting friend claims the team once played a league game at Wembley? Is he having me on?” asked Stuart Jacks in April 2012.
Ludicrously, he wasn’t. Southend were one of two teams – Brentford being the other – to play against Clapton Orient in Division Three (South) at Wembley back in 1930, owing to ground improvement work at Orient’s Lea Bridge Stadium. Their official website takes up the story:
Following a league match against Torquay (which the O’s won), officials from the Devon club complained about the perimeter fence being too close to the pitch. The Football League was duly asked to inspect the ground and agreed that alterations had to be made before any more games could take place; suddenly the Orient found themselves without a stadium to play in. Incredible as it seems, Wembley was suggested and the O’s actually played two league games in 1930 against Brentford and Southend United, winning 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. To this day the Orient is the only Football League side to have played home games at Wembley Stadium!
Since then of course, Tottenham joined Orient in becoming residents at Wembley, albeit in the Premier League. In recent weeks, talk of Arsenal upgrading the Emirates – and relocating to the national stadium while the work is carried out – has emerged.
Can you help?
“Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored four goals and was sent off in Gabon’s 4-3 win over Gambia last week,” writes Seb in Berlin. “Which other players have seen red after scoring at least three goals?”
“In Austria’s 10-0 demolition of San Marino, every outfield player who started got a goal, an assist or both. Has any other team managed this?” asks Paul Savage.
“Of all of the players who have a statue outside the ground of their former club, who made the least amount of appearances for that team?” wonders Masai Graham.
“Remarkably, Jon Dahl Tomasson is the first manager to be sacked by Sweden,” writes Gregg Bakowski. “Have any other nations – or clubs – never sacked a manager?”
“I read that, when the Netherlands conceded two goals to Lithuania recently, they were the lowest Fifa-ranked country to score against them (143rd). The Netherlands are currently ranked seventh which means a difference of 136 places between the two countries. I have two questions upon hearing this – which is the lowest-ranked team to score against England (since rankings began in 1992) and what is the biggest difference between teams where the lower ranked team has scored? I was thinking of the respective rankings at the time the matches took place rather than current rankings” – Pete Tomlin.
“Como and Milan’s stadiums are just 28 miles apart, but if their Serie A match goes ahead in Perth, Australia in February, both teams will travel 8,480 miles as the crow flies,” notes Paul Vickers. “Are there any other examples of matches being played a long way from either team’s home ground – including internationals but not major finals held in one nation?”
