Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
“I was rooming with our Polish goalkeeper Józef Młynarczyk and he was a bit stressed the night before the game,” Madjer later recalled. “Everybody thought Bayern would beat us. But I told Józef we hadn’t come this far to lose. I even predicted we would win 2-1.”
And so they did, though the comeback was an awfully long time coming.
It was worth the wait. Thirteen minutes from the end, Brazilian forward Juary breaks into the Bayern area down the right, receiving the ball as goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff and defender Hans Pflügler converge. Juary turns and attempts a pass across goal, spotting Madjer sprint into position. But the ball takes a deflection which slows it down. Madjer, it seems, has overrun it…
He has, but no matter. With his back to the net, Madjer calmly prods his right leg forward, waits for the ball to bounce behind and pulls the trigger, jabbing it beyond Hansi Flick on the line. Flick can only stand there bewildered, out-flicked. Like everyone else, he had no idea what was coming. Did that just happen? Oh yes.
“It’s hard to explain what goes through your head at such a moment,” Madjer recounted in 2015. “Your body reacts before your brain does.” Fortunately for Porto, their No8 did not dwell long on his masterpiece. Just as crucial, though less celebrated, was his cross for Juary to bury the winner a mere four minutes later, the impudence of that first goal having broken Bayern.
And can you blame them? Even the great Pelé was stunned. “It would have been the greatest goal I’ve ever seen if he had not looked back at it,” the Brazil legend is reported to have said. There speaks a purist, a true connoisseur. Or perhaps a man with an unfair thirst for perfection.
After all, why should Madjer not have witnessed the goal that made his name – the goal he would end up describing for the rest of his life?
Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
“I was rooming with our Polish goalkeeper Józef Młynarczyk and he was a bit stressed the night before the game,” Madjer later recalled. “Everybody thought Bayern would beat us. But I told Józef we hadn’t come this far to lose. I even predicted we would win 2-1.”
And so they did, though the comeback was an awfully long time coming.
It was worth the wait. Thirteen minutes from the end, Brazilian forward Juary breaks into the Bayern area down the right, receiving the ball as goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff and defender Hans Pflügler converge. Juary turns and attempts a pass across goal, spotting Madjer sprint into position. But the ball takes a deflection which slows it down. Madjer, it seems, has overrun it…
He has, but no matter. With his back to the net, Madjer calmly prods his right leg forward, waits for the ball to bounce behind and pulls the trigger, jabbing it beyond Hansi Flick on the line. Flick can only stand there bewildered, out-flicked. Like everyone else, he had no idea what was coming. Did that just happen? Oh yes.
“It’s hard to explain what goes through your head at such a moment,” Madjer recounted in 2015. “Your body reacts before your brain does.” Fortunately for Porto, their No8 did not dwell long on his masterpiece. Just as crucial, though less celebrated, was his cross for Juary to bury the winner a mere four minutes later, the impudence of that first goal having broken Bayern.
And can you blame them? Even the great Pelé was stunned. “It would have been the greatest goal I’ve ever seen if he had not looked back at it,” the Brazil legend is reported to have said. There speaks a purist, a true connoisseur. Or perhaps a man with an unfair thirst for perfection.
After all, why should Madjer not have witnessed the goal that made his name – the goal he would end up describing for the rest of his life?
Thanks to Pulp Fiction, everybody knows what Parisians call a quarter-pounder with cheese. But what about the French term for a goal flicked in with the back of the foot? And no, it has nothing to do with the metric system.
That’s right, John Travolta. They call it… “a Madjer”.
Few players pull off a feat so iconic, so eye-opening, that it carries their name forever, but Rabah Madjer joined that club on 27 May 1987 when he dazzled millions worldwide with a different way of putting the ball in the net. Antonín Panenka has his impudent penalty. Johan Cruyff served up his elastic turn. And Madjer gave us his glorious back-heel.
“It’s a registered trademark,” joked the man himself decades later, his entire career summed up by a single moment more than 30 years ago. A moment he can barely walk to the shops without being stopped and asked about. A moment relived every day in the present tense.
Cut to the Praterstadion in Vienna, where Madjer’s side Porto are facing Bayern München in the 1987 European Cup final. The Dragons are massive underdogs against the three-time continental champions and many believe the result a foregone conclusion. Bayern president Fritz Scherer has even penned his victory speech for the post-match banquet.
When Ludwig Kögl heads Bayern in front after 25 minutes, that confidence feels justified. Porto have never before appeared in the final. Porto, for most people watching at home, is the place where they make that drink. And look who they have up front, a little-known Algerian who signed from second-tier French side Racing Club in 1985.
