Giordano Giglio, when the goalkeeper scores

You don’t expect the top goal-scorer to be the goalkeeper. In the soccer that counts, it has happened to very few of those who wear No. 1. Michelangelo Rampulla was maybe the most famous of this limited group, to which we must add the penalty and free kick specialists, such as the Paraguayan Chilavert and the Brazilian Rogeiro Ceni. But scoring from your own goal area is very rare indeed, something that should go down in the annals, to proudly tell your friends. It happened to Giordano Giglio, 28, the goalkeeper of Union Villa Cassano, a team that plays in the Promotion League. His feat was aided by the wind, but it was, nevertheless, a feat.

“It was the 29th minute of the first half,” said Aldo Polato, the vice chairman of the Cassano team. “Giordano, who has a great throw, and a great kick, took the ball, put it on the ground and kicked it before the rival striker could get close.” With the help of the wind, the ball ended up in the other half of the field; one of our strikers shielded it, and their goalkeeper, who was a little out of the goal, couldn’t stop it. It’s a pity it wasn’t filmed; it would have been a favourite on YouTube.”

Giglio’s shot surprised his colleague Rinaldi, the goalkeeper of Olimpia Ponte Tresa, who are at the bottom of the league, but who lost only thanks to the goal by Union Villa’s No. 1. Not even penalties by the various Colombos, Martuccis or Mazzupappas managed to get past Olimpia Ponte Tresa’s defence. It took the goal by the home team’s goalkeeper to win the three points. “I’ve always been a good kicker, but I love to play and when I was a child, I also used to take penalties,” explained Giordano, who has a Peruzzi-like physique, and an admiration for a really “fantastic” trio of goalkeepers, Casillas, Julio Cesar and Buffon. “By chance, on the Friday before the match, I was playing about with one of my team-mates, kicking from one goal to the other: luck and the wind were undoubtedly on my side, but a long goal-kick has always been one of my fortes.”

Giglio is not new to feats of this kind. A few years ago, in 2007, he scored from the goal area when he was playing for Naviglio Trezzano against ODB Valle Salimbene. That year, his team rose from the Promotion League to the Excellence League, and Cassano Magnago hope to repeat the move this season. And the conditions are right, because Cassano is top in the League, with 42 points, 13 points above Cistellum.

“Everybody says this is Cassano’s year,” said Giglio, who is a qualified dental technician, with a stopgap job, so that he can develop his passion for football. “Destiny seems to be going in that direction. I want to contribute, and if everything goes as it should, I’m ready to stay with Cassano. I was here in 2009, and I came back for Coach Barban and for Chairman Ielmini.”

“Maybe this year, we’ll make it; let’s hope it’s a good year,” said Polato. “We’ve been trying for years, and Chairman Luigi Ielmini (who is on holiday in Kenya) would really deserve the victory. We’re a great team, with more than 200 card-carrying members. Union Villa Cassano has been waiting for promotion to the Excellence league, since 1995, after the merger between Enal Vila and Polisportiva. We also won the playoffs two years ago, but they didn’t take us. This year, we’re trying to win the championship, so we can avoid any problems. It’s a pity that the people in Cassano don’t support us much; let’s hope that this amazing goal helps.”