Sergio Aguero: Great Goals Retold

Fans of Argentine side Independiente will never forget September 11, 2005. On that day, they witnessed what most fans of the club say is their greatest ever goal.

Sergio Aguero, aged just 17, had just made history in the Avellaneda derby with a 13-second solo run that put the finishing touch to a 4-0 win over their bitter rivals. Aguero remembers it well.

“I will never forget that day. The match was scheduled to start before noon for security reasons, so we had to wake up very early. Our stadium was packed. We were winning 3-0 with a hat-trick from Frutos. In the 37th minute, I got a loose ball behind the halfway line, made a spin and went past Vitali.

"We were two against two and all I was thinking was how to make a pass for Frutos, but he was well-marked. I had Diego Crosa ahead. He was retreating and waiting, so I kept running.

"When I found myself in the area, the spaces had disappeared. I tried a dummy, but Crosa was intelligent and quick and didn’t buy it, so I tried another, and finally I decided to take the shot with my left foot before he blocked me completely.

"When I saw the ball in the net, I removed my jersey to show a T-shirt I was wearing, bearing the legend ‘For you, Emiliano’, in the memory of my friend Emiliano Molina, who had recently died in a car accident. It was very emotional.

"When I watched the goal on TV that night, I couldn’t believe I had made such a move. It was the perfect derby and my first ever goal at Racing.

"My dad would always say to me that I didn’t have to wait until getting a chance of shooting with my right foot, so we’d been practising a lot of left-foot shots in my early years. And that day, I had the chance to tell him how right he was.”

From the April 2011 issue of FourFourTwo magazine. Subscribe!