Goals straight from the kick-off are generally met with greater joy than any. It gives the lucky team and supporters a break from the usual feeling and inching their way into a match. It’s not such a welcome experience for either the opposing team, or those unlucky fans that are yet to make their way to their seats.
We will start with a goal that is not among the fastest ever, but is the Premier League’s fastest this season before the penultimate weekend.
Theo Walcott took advantage of the already-relegated QPR‘s sleepwalk of a start to the game, with the 12th fastest in Premier League history. We all knew the lad was fast, but 21 seconds is mighty impressive.
To get the fastest goal in our own moneyball league, we must go back as far as December 2000, when Tottenham‘s Ledley King breached the Bradford defence after just 9.7 seconds. While his career ended in premature heartbreak, he was premature in the best possible way at Valley Parade that day. The fun didn’t stop there either, with the match ending an exciting 3-3 draw.
Incredibly, the world’s fastest goal is registered as being scored in Saudi Arabia after only two seconds by Nawaf Al Abed for Al-Hilal against Al Shoalah. However, the officiality of this is questioned, as the match was ruled invalid due to his side fielding six players over the age of 23 in the age-restricted game. As there is nothing at all official about this blog, it is however good enough for me!
This goal was scored by Carlos Almeida for F.C. Oliveira do Hospital against Arganil in the fifth tier of Portuguese football. Three seconds is mighty impressive, and again it is a simple punt over the goalkeeper’s head, or at least as simple as a goal from that distance can be.
This goal is not strictly speaking among the fastest ever, but for the sheer occasion it deserves inclusion. After 25 seconds Louis Saha had David Moyes dreaming of a trophy with Everton, as he scored the fastest ever FA Cup Final goal.