Dibble to Duverger: other goalkeeper nightmares after Kinsky’s horror show | Football

Andy Dibble: Nottingham Forest v Manchester City, Mar 1990

The score at the City Ground was goalless as Manchester City’s Andy Dibble captured an aerial cross and assessed his options. Little did he know that the Nottingham Forest midfielder Gary Crosby had spotted that he had rested the ball, casually, on one hand. “All I thought was: ‘He’s got to have it in two hands,’” said Crosby, who would steal up behind Dibble before stooping to head the ball out of his grasp and tap into the net. Despite concerted visiting protestations, the referee, Roger Gifford, remained unmoved and the goal stood. “I can never escape it,” admitted Dibble in an interview 14 years later. Crosby, meanwhile, has said: “It’s the one thing I get remembered for.” Dibble, now 60, retired from professional football in October when knee replacement surgery prompted his departure from his role as Accrington Stanley’s goalkeeping coach. He played for 18 clubs in a 24-year career that earned him three Wales caps.

René Higuita: Cameroon v Colombia, Jun 1990

René Higuita was a goalkeeper ahead of his time: a sweeper-keeper in an era when they were still to be formally “invented”. The Colombian known as El Loco – or the Madman – prided himself on his footwork but it went horribly wrong for him in this World Cup last-16 game. Having advanced close to the halfway line, Higuita was dispossessed by the 38-year-old striker Roger Milla and watched in horror as Milla deposited the ball in the unguarded net to score his second extra-time goal in a 2-1 Cameroon victory. “It was a mistake as big a house,” conceded the brilliant yet notoriously risk-taking Higuita. In a time before routine video analysis of opponents, Milla had received a helping hand. “I was lucky as I’d played with Carlos Valderrama, Colombia’s captain, at Montpellier,” he said. “Carlos showed us videos of Higuita dribbling the ball out of his area and I knew I might be able to take advantage of a mistake. It worked.”

Loris Karius: Liverpool v Real Madrid, May 2018

After Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool were sunk 3-1 in this Champions League final, a tearful Loris Karius could not stop apologising. The German was responsible for Madrid’s first and third goals, the trauma beginning when his attempt to roll the ball to Trent Alexander-Arnold via an underarm throw was intercepted by Karim Benzema and trickled into the unguarded net. After subsequently mishandling Gareth Bales’s 40-yard shot, Karius was inconsolable. A keeper who would receive online death threats was admitted to hospital for a check-up five days later, when an examination revealed he had sustained a concussion after Sergio Ramos had elbowed him before the opening goal. In July Liverpool signed Alisson as his replacement and Karius had unsatisfactory stints with Besiktas and Union Berlin before becoming Newcastle’s third choice goalkeeper. Although he made only two appearances for Eddie Howe’s team, one came at Wembley in the 2023 League Cup final, where he replaced the suspended Nick Pope and cup-tied Martin Dubravka. Manchester United won but Karius played well and would come to regard it as a turning point. He is at Schalke in Germany’s second tier.

Illan Meslier: Sunderland v Leeds, Oct 2024

It was the 97th minute and Leeds were 2-1 up and on course to move level on points with Sunderland at the top of the Championship. When Alan Browne chipped a benign-looking, rather miscued, effort goalwards, Illan Meslier looked set for a routine collection. But the young Frenchman was somehow deceived by the bounce and permitted it to bypass both hands and his right leg en route into the back of the net. Although that effort was judged to have taken a deflection off Junior Firpo it was far too slight to have wrongfooted Meslier. The Leeds manager, Daniel Farke, said he had “never seen such an incident in my 30 years in football” and that his goalkeeper was the “saddest person in our dressing room. He’s in tears.” Sunderland’s manager, Régis Le Bris, who coached Meslier from childhood to young adulthood at Lorient, spent some time on the pitch hugging his former protege after the final whistle. “I’m disappointed for him, it was surprising,” said Le Bris, who said Meslier suspected a rogue divot was responsible. “Illan said the ball changed direction when it touched the ground. I like this boy and I like this goalkeeper. He’s very good. Everyone can make mistakes but when a goalkeeper makes big mistakes the consequences are very important.” The fallout seemed to affect Meslier badly and, by early April 2025, Farke had dropped him. An undeniably gifted keeper tipped as France’s future No 1 during Marcelo Bielsa’s Elland Road tenure is now third choice at Leeds.

Josue Duverger: Canada v Haiti, Jun 2021

When the Haiti defender Kevin LaFrance directed a routine backpass to Josue Duverger from just outside his own penalty area in this World Cup qualifier the visiting goalkeeper was under minimal pressure. Yet Duverger, rather than control the ball, permitted it to roll under his foot, in effect nutmegging himself as he set it on course towards the net. Even then the ball was moving so slowly the situation looked retrievable. But, as the keeper went to clear, his feet got into a terrible tangle and he somehow sliced it into the net. As Canada proceeded to win 3-0 and move closer to Qatar 2022, poor Duverger – who was born in Montreal and had been involved with Canada’s national squad until under-17 level – appeared mortified. A keeper who had begun his career at Sporting is now 25 and with Cosmos Koblenz in Germany’s fifth tier. It seemed no consolation that, shortly after his own goal, Duverger made a tremendous save to deny Jonathan David.