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by Mick the Ram
The fastest ever goal scored in international football occurred at the weekend, when Christoph Baumgartner netted after just SIX seconds for Austria in a game against Slovakia in Bratislava.
The 24-year-old midfielder, who plays his club football in Germany for RB Leipzig, headed straight for the opposition goal from the kick-off and glided past three half-hearted challenges, before firing a low right-footed shot past home goalkeeper Martin Dubravka and into the bottom corner of the net.
This effort was a second quicker than Lukas Podolski’s strike for Germany against Ecuador back in 2013, although remarkably it was still nearly FOUR seconds slower than the fastest ever clocked; but that happened in a non-professional match and consequently, is not recognised officially.
Tunnel-vision
In the friendly fixture which took place on Saturday 23 March, many supporters were still making their way to their seats when Baumgartner decided to take the direct route to goal and seemingly caught the Slovaks unprepared.
The 24-year-old had the ball touched to him by teammate Michael Gregoritsch in the centre circle and promptly set off, weaving his way forward with almost tunnel-vision and seemingly had only one thing on his mind when, around 25-yards from goal, he felt confident enough to strike a shot that Dubravka, the Slovakian keeper – who plays in the Premier League for Newcastle United – seemed a little slow at getting down to, and before he knew it, it was past him and nestling in the bottom corner.
Mixture of elation and disbelief
This sparked wild celebrations, as he was immediately mobbed by the rest of the team and in the stands of the Tehelne pole stadium in the Slovak capital, the large following of visiting Austrian supporters reacted with almost disbelief; whilst the home fans fell silent hardly able to comprehend what they had just witnessed.
A late Andreas Weimann’s goal secured a 2-0 victory for manager Ralf Rangnick’s side as they continued an impressive four-match winning run, in the build up to this summer’s Euros being held in Germany.
Beats past record by ONE second
Somewhat ironically, it was a German’s scoring record that Baumgartner had beaten. Lukas Podolski scored after just over seven seconds when playing for his country in a game against Ecuador in May 2013.
He had actually chased down an opponent, robbed him of the ball and drilled a shot beyond the South Americans side’s goalkeeper,
German almost matches record just hours later
Incredibly, on the same night as Baumgartner achievement, another German almost matched his feat. Twenty-year-old Bayer Leverkusen midfielder, Florian Wirtz, took a pass from Toni Kroos from the kick-off in their game with France and with the aid of a deflection, saw his unstoppable effort go in off the underside of the crossbar.
It was timed at a couple of hundredths of a second below Podolski’s strike, but a second behind the Austrian goal.
Impressive records
The earliest goal ever recorded in the Premier League was by Shane Long for Southampton in 7.69 seconds against Watford in 2019; whist in the Champions League there is yet more German involvement with Roy Makaay holding the record, scoring for Bayern Munich 10.12 seconds into the second leg of their last-16 tie against Real Madrid, in March 2007.
Straight from kick off holds unofficial record
As quick as all these goals have been, they are nowhere near the fastest-ever recorded. This occurred just last month when non-league player, Ryan Hall, shot straight from the kick-off for Croydon FC in a semi-final against Cockfosters, in the London Senior Trophy, and when his remarkable effort crossed the line it was timed at just 2.31 seconds.
However, Guinness World Records could not confirm that it was an official record for the fastest goal scored from kick-off, as they do not monitor goals outside of professional football. It would be pretty much impossible however, for anybody to have been able to score a goal any faster.
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