Is there a more peculiar occurrence in soccer than a goal-scoring keeper? Liverpool’s Alisson, Aston Villa’s Peter Schmeichel, and Blackburn’s Brad Friedel all spring to mind.
Goals scored by the people who are tasked with preventing goals at the other end are often regarded as freak instances prompted by late desperation and tend to involve a large slice of luck. However, you can’t label a goalkeeper who has recorded over 100 goals as fortuitous.
Bearing in mind that even some midfielders don’t register two goals in a game throughout their careers, it would take a goalkeeping maverick to achieve this feat five times.
Let me introduce you to the man who rejects conformity to the disciplines that most goalkeepers swear by; welcome to the wonderful and weird world of Rogério Ceni.
Untouchable
Rogério Ceni has achieved numerous remarkable records that will surely never be beaten. Although he never managed to bag a hat-trick (only two goalkeepers have ever accomplished this seemingly impossible act: José Luis Chilavert and Grigoris Athanasiou), Ceni’s record of 131 goals is under no foreseeable threat.
His 25-year career saw him score an astonishing 61 free kicks, which places him in the top 10 all-time in this category (even if the numbers for each player fluctuate depending on where you get your information). Putting Ceni on penalty duties paid dividends for his managers as well, converting 70 of them in total.
For context, Ceni boasted a similar goals-to-game ratio to Emile Heskey in an England jersey.
Ceni collected a World Cup winner’s medal, despite not stepping on the pitch at the 2002 tournament. He would go on to feature briefly at the 2006 World Cup, though, fulfilling the childhood dreams of so many who preceded and followed him.
Seventeen caps for the national team should not be brushed aside, particularly when the caps span a successful era for Brazil.
Ceni spent his entire playing career in the Brazilian soccer system, meaning audiences outside of South America weren’t regularly exposed to his mastery. Yet, thanks to the internet, soccer lovers globally have video access to all of Ceni’s goals, each of them in all their beautifully precise glory.
The world is blessed with numerous montages of helpless opposition keepers desperately clutching at thin air as Ceni’s pinpoint dead-ball efforts fly beyond them.
Nurtured audacity
Think back to when you were a kid for a moment; are you picturing a rather conservative coach discouraging flamboyancy and instead demanding basic rigidity? I know I am.
For the good of the game, however, Rogério Ceni didn’t encounter these restrictions. This eccentricity that can be so lamentably instructed out of kids in Britain was, in fact, fostered in Ceni.
São Paulo FC manager Muricy Ramalho spotted Ceni’s dead-ball talents in training and, rather than castrating his curiosity, tasked him with practicing set pieces repeatedly until the reward of sending your ‘keeper the whole length of the field outweighed the risk of leaving your goal vulnerable to an easy counter-attack.
It’s bizarre, granted, but Ramalho trusted Ceni’s abilities with his hands to the point that, while the outfield players were working on shape and movement, Rogério was given license to fine-tune his supplementary skill. By his own account, he’d take up to 3,000 free kicks a month to perfect his artistry.
Even the number on his back exemplified the idiosyncrasies that Ceni couldn’t resist parading. For most goalkeepers, the number ‘1’ would suffice, but Rogerio saw the humor in intentionally swapping the digits of the number ‘10’. He was, after all, a goalscorer. São Paulo FC retired the ‘01’ jersey number once his playing days were done; a fitting tribute to a bohemian individual.
Keen to see how Rogerio Ceni’s goalscoring career compares to his counterparts? Check out our post revealing the top-ten scoring goalies of all time!
A samba boy at heart
If it weren’t for his beloved country producing so many shot-stopping household names, Ceni might have received more international caps. Cláudio Taffarel, Dida and Júlio César reduced Ceni to an infrequent role for Brazil.
Yet so partisan was his following, then-manager Dunga had to address potential protests against Ceni’s omission from the squad when Brazil played in Rogério’s spiritual home of São Paulo.
Befittingly to the country which boasts Christ the Redeemer, the set-piece specialist appropriately built up an almost ecclesiastical band of worshippers—waiting for him to perform his next soccer miracle.
The man hailing from Paraná was not afraid to listen to his carefree boyhood spirit, as is customary in this part of the world. His policy appeared to be to leave his inhibitions back at home. Restrained soccer is no fun – at least, it wasn’t to Ceni.
Is it a gamble to put your goalkeeper on penalty and free-kick responsibilities? Definitely, but when you study his highlights, you’ll see why it’s a bet his managers thought was worth taking. South American soccer players have long been associated with a freedom of expression that scintillates the senses of spectators – case in point: Rogério Ceni.
Dab hand
Rather than what he could do with his feet, Liverpool fans will be all too familiar with Ceni’s abilities with his hands. It’s no secret that clubs from outside of Europe take the Club World Cup more seriously than their European counterparts, but the English side was clearly desperate for an equalizer in the ‘05 final, throwing the figurative kitchen sink at São Paulo FC.
The Yokohama crowd was treated to several extraordinary reflexive saves from Ceni to shut out the Scousers and hand the Brazilian outfit their first Club World Cup title (at least in its modern form), thus forever inscribing his name in São Paulo folklore. He rightfully claimed man-of-the-match for his performance.
That game in Japan was no isolated incident. Júlio César accredits Ceni’s performance versus Chilean side Universidad Católica in 2013 as the greatest performance he’s ever witnessed from a goalkeeper.
It might appear an odd choice considering São Paulo FC conceded three goals that evening, but as César explains, if you consider that Rogério was in the twilight of his career, the types of saves he executed were those reminiscent of a nimble and exuberant young shot-stopper.
Influence on the game
One of Ceni’s most famous admirers is compatriot Ederson, who credits him as a key factor for the Manchester City stopper falling in love with the sport. Players with such zest for the quirky have a way of infiltrating and inspiring the minds of the unconvinced.
Ball-playing goalkeepers are utilized by top managers to retain possession and almost begin attacks with an extensive range of passing. Defenders have no qualms playing the ball back to their ‘keeper these days because it’s likely their control and footwork would be what you’d expect from an outfielder.
This isn’t the exact imprint that Ceni left on soccer. To reiterate, there are no modern goalkeepers that contribute to a team’s attacking prowess quite as Rogério Ceni did, but the conversation surrounding extracting every last drop of quality that a team possesses by exploiting a goalkeeper’s abilities with their feet can’t take place without mentioning the great man.
Pep Guardiola, one of the greatest managers the sport has ever seen, mooted Ederson possibly being the answer to Manchester City’s penalty problems last year. To me, this would feel like Ceni’s legacy coming full circle through the man who idolized him.
Ceni will undoubtedly be proud of his unorthodox attacking exploits, but I expect he would be quick to remind onlookers of his gloved skill set. There’s no denying that it’s Ceni’s originality that forever reserves his place at the head table when it comes to soccer folk heroes. Fans pay the money for the moments which will get them off their seats, and Rogério Ceni was worth every cent.