5 footballers who scored all their international goal(s) at FIFA World Cup
Every footballer dreams of representing his country at the FIFA World Cup once. Over the years, many great footballers have had the opportunity to represent their respective countries at the World Cup. To score a goal in the tournament is always a great achievement and to get your first international goal at the tournament is an equally great achievement.
But what’s even bigger is if you score your only international goals at the FIFA World Cup. Yes! Since the inception of the tournament in 1930, quite a number of footballers have scored their only international goals at the World Cup and here’s a list of five such footballers.
#5 Josimar, Brazil – 1986 World Cup
The 1980s were a period where Brazil were surprisingly among the underachievers in world football. Despite having a squad with an abundance of world class players, Brazil failed to win the 1982 World Cup in Spain. Four years later, in Mexico, the team was once again considered one of the favourites to win the tournament but were knocked out in the quarter-finals by France via a penalty shootout.
However, the team’s defence was quite disciplined throughout the tournament, conceding only once and two of the team’s defenders were named in the Team of the Tournament. One of them was Josimar who made his debut during the tournament.
In an international career that lasted only three years, Josimar scored two exceptionally brilliant goals for Brazil and both of them came at the 1986 World Cup in his first two international appearances.
After being benched for Brazil’s first two group games, Josimar made his national team debut in their third group game against Northern Ireland. Three minutes from half-time, he received the ball outside the penalty and instead of crossing the ball in, he took a shot from outside the penalty area which went over Northern Ireland goalie Pat Jennings and into the net.
The former Sevilla player’s second goal of the competition came in the very next match against Poland in the round of 16 that Brazil won 4-0.
After a Brazilian free-kick was blocked by the Polish wall, the ball landed on the feet of Alemao who chipped it towards Josimar at the far right. The right-back then dribbled past a couple of Polish defenders before scoring from a very tight angle to double Brazil’s lead.
Even though Brazil were knocked out in the last eight, Josimar’s performance was praised by many with some even being of the opinion that he was the best right-back of the tournament.