Iconic Moments in Football No.5
Rene Higuita introduces the ‘Scorpion Kick’ to World Football!
September 1995, London.
A meagre 20,038 fans were dotted around Wembley watching England go through the motions in another dull and dreary friendly.
The opponents this time were Colombia, who had some great players such as Faustino Asprilla and Carlos Valderrama. They also had a goalkeeper who was nicknamed ‘El Loco’ (The Madman) in Colombia. More about him in a second!
As hosts of the European Championships the following summer, England were exempt from qualifying for the tournament.
Although this was a good thing, it also meant that us England fans were subjected to numerous friendlies with nothing riding on the game.
England coach Terry Venables (who had been appointed the previous spring) was using these friendlies to tinker with tactics and try out different players in preparation for Euro 96.
One thing that was for certain was the crowds would definitely be higher at Euro 96 than this game against Colombia.
At the time, Wembley held 75,000 and often England were playing in front of a half-full stadium.
Nothing of note had happened in the game until a moment of brilliance from Colombian goalkeeper Rene Higuita turned the game on its head.
Liverpool’s Jamie Redknapp was making his debut for England and he got the ball about 30 yards out on the right wing.
He scuffed a cross that looped up and towards Higuita in the Colombian goal. Redknapp hadn’t meant to shoot but his effort was on target nonetheless.
Higuita could easily have caught the ball as it dropped out of the air but instead put his hands out in front of him and kicked his legs out as if he was attempting to do a handstand.
Before he landed hands-first onto the Wembley turf, he kicked the ball away with both of his feet!
This was later called the Scorpion Kick and was imitated up and down the country in playgrounds everywhere! Shares in Elastoplast skyrocketed due to thousands of schoolboys cutting themselves when attempting the kick….alright, that’s not true, but I’d imagine that a there were a fair few cut and bruises after trying the scorpion kick!
There were no big screens at the old Wembley for the twenty thousand fans to see it happen again and had to wait until they got home to re-live a moment of sheer audacity!
Nothing else happened in the game and those few who were at the game will definitely remember that they were there to see the glorious moment of goalkeeping acrobatics!
Here is a video of the Scorpion Kick in all it’s glory……
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