Tottenham’s Erik Lamela joins pantheon of rabona greats

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There have been 21 objectives scored within the Premier League over the weekend and there could be little doubt as to who scored the decide of the bunch.

Tottenham Hotspur in the end fell to a 2-1 defeat in opposition to Arsenal within the north London derby, however a spark of spontaneous talent from Erik Lamela at the very least ensured the vanquished guests opened the scoring in type.

Having initially being named on the bench, Lamela was summoned to switch the injured Son Heung-Min after simply 19 minutes.

Certainly, the 29-year-old ahead had barely been thrust into the motion when he broke the impasse on the half hour, placing Spurs forward with an ingenious rabona end.

With the ball bobbling round within the Arsenal penalty space, Lamela sussed his second, scissored his toes and poked a low shot via the group and contained in the far put up.

It will seem that no one was extra shocked that Spurs left-back Sergio Reguilon, who seemed fully and completely aghast whereas celebrating together with his teammate.

It is honest to say that Arsenal’s social media group had been far much less enthused, affording Lamela’s surprise aim simply six perfunctory phrases.

Sadly, issues quickly began to unravel for Jose Mourinho’s facet as Arsenal first equalised then nudged forward, due to objectives from Martin Odegaard (44′) and Alexandre Lacazette (64′ pen).

The Spurs capitulation was then accomplished within the 76th minute when Lamela introduced his mercurial look to a untimely finish by selecting up two bookings within the house of simply seven minutes.

In being dismissed, Lamela turned the primary participant to each rating and be despatched off in a Premier League recreation for Spurs in virtually a decade — the final being Emmanuel Adebayor in November 2012, which additionally got here in opposition to the Gunners.

Considerably bizarrely, as incredible as Lamela’s opening aim in opposition to Arsenal on Sunday was, it does not even qualify as the perfect rabona of his profession.

For that we’ve to traipse again to 2014, when the Argentine scored twice in opposition to Asteras Tripolis within the Europa League — the primary being a real second of genius.

Spurs drubbed Asteras 5-1 on a busy night time at White Hart Lane, throughout which Harry Kane additionally scored his first hat trick for the membership earlier than spending the ultimate jiffy of the match enjoying as goalkeeper.

Regardless of the derby defeat and the early bathe, it is maybe comforting to know that Lamela’s night ended with him being prolonged an invitation to affix one among soccer’s most elusive and unique golf equipment.

The Spurs ahead was handed a proper welcome to Staff Rabona by none apart from former Birmingham Metropolis midfielder David Dunn, one of many society’s founding fathers.

Dunn turned chair and life member of the membership when he entered the rabona corridor of fame in 2004 with a really timeless show of footwork throughout a derby recreation in opposition to Aston Villa.

In fact, the rabona itself pre-dates Dunn’s masterpiece by many, a few years, with the primary incarnation of the manoeuvre mentioned to have come about within the Nineteen Forties.

Estudiantes striker Ricardo Infante is credited with inventing the method having tried an “unusual” cross-legged shot, solely to attain from 35 metres in a 3-0 win over Rosario Central in 1948.

The identify “rabona” was popularised in the course of the Seventies, however the time period itself additionally dates again to Infante’s outlandish aim in opposition to Rosario, which was branded a “rabona” by Argentine journal El Grafico. The expression comes from the phrase “hacerse le rabona” which suggests to skip faculty or play truant.

El Grafico produced a cartoon of Infante scoring his aim with crossed legs, together with the headline “El infante que se hizo la rabona‘ (the kid skips faculty”) — a reference to him “skipping” the usage of his weaker left foot.

The rabona was later demonstrated in entrance of a a lot wider viewers by Ascoli winger Giovanni Roccotelli, who debuted it in Serie B in the course of the 1977-78 season. The transfer was referred to as “the Roccotelli cross” after the Ascoli star used it to offer flamboyant assists to his strikers

“In each recreation the followers begged me to do it,” Roccotelli later advised La Gazzetta dello Sport, additionally recalling that he’d heard the good Pele was an admirer of his signature transfer. “A very long time in the past, Pele was in Italy, and he ended up speaking about incrociate [‘to cross something’].

“I swear that, at one level, he mentioned: ‘I do know that there was an Italian who was good on the rabona, a man with a moustache.’ He was speaking about me, who else? And you can not think about what that meant to me.”

In fact, many gamers have loved success with the rabona since then, with the likes of Ronaldinho, Ricardo Quaresma, Eden Hazard, Angel Di Maria and even Diego Maradona recognized to have dabbled in one among soccer’s most outlandish tips.



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