There are goalkeepers who just make the goal look smaller. Their uncanny presence seems to shrink the goal and is every strikers nightmare.
The Dane Kim Christensen was one of them. However, he didnt rely on the effect of optical illusion. The goalkeeper once took inspiration from the slogans of a famous Swedish furniture store and literally made his goal smaller.
Between 2008 and 2010, Christensen guarded the goal for IFK Göteborg. At that time, the goalposts in some stadiums of Swedens top league, Fotbollsallsvenskan, were not firmly anchored.
True to the popular advertising slogans Discover the possibilities or Furnish cleverly, he would regularly push the posts together before kickoff, reducing the size of the goal by a few centimeters.
However, in September 2009, this crafty furniture-moving was exposed. During a match against Örebro, referee Stefan Johannesson noticed that the posts were not correctly positioned and moved them back.
Since it was not clear at the time who was responsible for the rule violation, there was no penalty. According to a spokesperson for the Swedish Football Association speaking to ‘Sportblad’ at the time, that would have been the interpretation of the rules.
Later, TV footage from ‘Canal Plus’ exposed Christensen as the culprit. However, he didnt quite understand the fuss about his cheating: Im shocked by the reaction in Sweden. Everyone does it, but Im sure the reaction is stronger because Im Danish, said the IFK keeper in an interview with the Danish newspaper ‘b.t.’.
A fellow goalkeeper had given him the idea a few years earlier, and since then Christensen had occasionally made his goal smaller, as he later revealed to ‘Aftonbladet’. Fun fact: In 88 games for Göteborg, Christensen kept a clean sheet 41 times.
Despite an investigation into the case, Christensen was not punished for his actions. Among the players, the incident didnt make as big a splash as it did in the media. According to a survey by ‘Eurosport’, the vast majority of goalkeepers in the Fotbollsallsvenskan said that it did not constitute any significant competitive advantage.
However, in this case, those famous centimeters could very well decide between a goal and a miss. A survey among strikers would surely have yielded a different result.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in here.
AFP – 2012 AFP