The rabona is brilliant because it's stupid. It was a poor piece of decision making, it was an unnecessary and ill-advised risk, it was indulgent, it was ill-advised, and it was absolutely wonderful. Nobody, at any point, should wrap their better leg behind their weaker and chip the ball over the goalkeeper from twenty yards, because that's not a thing that happens.Įxcept it did happen, and because it happened it was brilliant. So: David Beckham should work space for the cross Cristiano Ronaldo should run directly towards the opposition's net Tony Hibbert should give the ball to somebody else and go fishing. Being prescriptive about it, and as a general principle, at any given point while the ball is in their team's possession, a footballer should do whatever is most likely to lead to a goal for their team. The ball could go in, but it could also go for a throw in, or a hamstring injury, or just dribble sadly away.

Tottenham are on the attack, space is opening up, both strikers are peeling off their markers, and they've only got a one-goal lead. Being able to conceive of doing something like that, in the heat of the moment, is in its own way just as impressive as actually doing it a contortion of the imagination rather than the legs. It is brilliant because it is an astounding act of physical excellence - most humans couldn't even get the leg around there most footballers couldn't hope to control the resultant contact enough to send the ball arcing precisely beyond the keeper - but also the achievement of that act of physical excellence requires a mental contortion of similar audacity. This is also obviously a stupid thing to do.

This is obviously a brilliant thing to do. Last Thursday night, against Astaras Tripoli of Greece, Tottenham Hotspur's Erik Lamela scored what he described as the best goal of his career, what his manager described as perhaps the best by any of his players, ever, and what most of the people watching described as 'HOLY HELL DID YOU SEE WHAT HE DID THERE?' He scored a rabona a technique which sees a footballer wrap leg one behind the other, to hit the ball with the 'wrong' foot.

Lamela rabona goal video