When Matvey Safonov lifted the Champions League trophy without having made a single save, it rekindled a timeless curiosity: has a goalkeeper ever triumphed so passively in a major final? The answer, it turns out, is a rare but fascinating club whose members stood firm behind impenetrable defenses or rode waves of sheer good fortune.
The most iconic example belongs to Nery Pumpido during the 1986 World Cup final. Argentina and West Germany delivered a five-goal thriller at the Azteca, yet Pumpido was oddly untroubled. The Germans' only two shots on target both found the net from corner scrambles, meaning the Argentine never recorded a save as his side held on for a 3-2 victory. For a World Cup final, such anonymity behind the sticks is almost unthinkable.
Europe’s premier club competition has seen three similar instances. When Porto dismantled Monaco 3-0 in 2004, Vítor Baía faced no official tests—a disallowed Fernando Morientes effort aside—crowning José Mourinho’s tactical masterclass. Seven years later, Barcelona’s Víctor Valdés might as well have fetched a deckchair. Manchester United managed just one goal via Wayne Rooney’s contentious equalizer, and Valdés was never forced into action as Barça strolled to a 3-1 win. In 2020, Lyon’s Sarah Bouhaddi joined the list in the Women’s Champions League final. Wolfsburg’s sole shot on target went in from Alexandra Popp, leaving Bouhaddi with nothing to do but hoist the trophy after a 3-1 triumph.
Arsenal’s Wojciech Szczęsny also enjoyed a final’s day off in 2015, when the Gunners routed Aston Villa 4-0 in the FA Cup final. These anomalies highlight how even the most pressurized occasions can bypass the last line of defense entirely—a testament to the dominance in front of them or the ineptitude of the opposition.
While goalkeepers daydreamed through finals, Salford City were enduring a nightmare of a different breed. Their 2025-26 League Two campaign yielded 25 victories, more than any other side, yet they missed automatic promotion by a single point. A reluctance to settle for draws meant 15 losses, leaving them fourth behind draw-heavy Cambridge United. A playoff semi-final win over Grimsby offered hope, but defeat to Notts County sealed their fate. Salford became the first Football League club since Chelsea in 1979-80 to top the wins column without going up.
The lower reaches of the pyramid are littered with such hard-luck tales. In the old Third Division North and South, where only the champions ascended, clubs like Rochdale (26 wins in 1925-26), Stockport County (27 in 1928-29 and again in 1929-30), and Rotherham United (28 in 1948-49) all achieved remarkable totals in vain. The Conference/National League has been particularly cruel: Wrexham’s 26 wins in 2021-22, Barnet’s 26 in 2023-24, and Forest Green’s 26 in 2015-16 are just a few of the 25+ win seasons that ended in playoff agony or worse. The most absurd example comes from the 2017-18 Southern League, where five teams won at least 30 of their 46 games—but only two earned promotion.
Jadon Sancho’s recent journey across European finals has placed him in a different elite bracket. Across the last three seasons, he became one of only two known players to appear in the finals of all three current UEFA competitions—Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League. Henrikh Mkhitaryan previously achieved the feat (Europa League 2017, Conference League 2022, Champions League 2025), and Nicola Zalewski came close with final appearances in 2022, 2023, and 2025. Sancho’s swift accumulation of final experiences underscores the nomadic demands of the modern game at the highest level.
Away from the glitz, Qatar’s record scorer Almoez Ali now risks an unwanted first: missing an entire World Cup due to a red card in a pre-tournament friendly. Sent off for violent conduct against Ireland, a three-match ban could rule him out of the group stage if Qatar fail to advance. Whether any player has ever been so harshly penalized remains an open question, but Ali’s situation serves as a brutal reminder of how fine the margins are between hero and onlooker.
In a gentler contrast, Braintree Town defender Tommy Smith is preparing for a life-changing summer. The 34-year-old, plying his trade in the National League, has been named in New Zealand’s World Cup squad. His call-up is a throwback to the days when non-league players occasionally graced the global stage, proving that the World Cup’s net can still catch the most unexpected talents.
And then there was the McLeman Cup final, a fixture suspended in farcical circumstances. With the penalty shootout in progress, the floodlights at Cove Rangers’ ground abruptly failed on 15 May. The shootout resumed 13 days later, a surreal pause that tested the nerves of everyone involved. It stands as one of the more bizarre postponements in recent cup history, a fittingly odd footnote to the season’s collection of curiosities.
From unworried goalkeepers to floodlit fiascoes, football never runs short of stories that defy logic. These tales, drawn from across the pyramid and around the globe, remind us why the game’s quirks continue to captivate. Based on reporting from The Guardian.