Even if Ezequiel Calvente does nothing else in his career, he will always be remembered for the bizarre penalty he took for Spain in the European Under-19 Championship at the weekend.
The 19-year-old shaped up to hit his shot right footed, only to strike the ball with his planted left foot, completely fooling the Italian goalkeeper. The clip has already been viewed millions of times on youtube.
A revolution in penalty taking? Perhaps not quite. Spain were leading 2-0 and easing to victory. The pressure was not on the Real Betis midfielder, and I don't expect this to become a widespread technique in matches that matter. Not many players in the world game would be capable of displaying such a lack of inhibition, especially in crunch games.
We have seen players chip penalties, most recently when Sebastiįn Abreu scored the decisive spot kick for Uruguay against Ghana at the World Cup. But Calvente has taken impudent penalty taking onto a new level with this effort.
And he has not even made his professional debut for Betis.
Comments