In 1993, England's World Cup qualification hopes hung by a thread. Their only hope was to inflict a crushing defeat on a team of amateurs and hope other results went their way.
But less than 9 seconds into the game, they suffered their most embarrassing moment in their history. This is the true story of that goal, as told by the man who scored it...
But less than 9 seconds into the game, they suffered their most embarrassing moment in their history. This is the true story of that goal, as told by the man who scored it...
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00:00There's no picture of the goal I scored against England in 1993. Everything happened
00:08in only 8.3 seconds. So fast that I surprised not just David Seaman, but all the photographers
00:14too. Our stadium in San Marino displays images of various players and goals, though none
00:19of our most famous strike. Unfortunately, all that exists is a still of television footage.
00:25Too fuzzy to be hung on a wall, but those 8.3 seconds changed my life. People still
00:30know me, and that goal, against England.
00:33Oh, hello everyone. Adam Monk here, and this is the incredible story of David Galtieri.
00:42The man who inflicted arguably the most embarrassing moment the England national team ever, ever,
00:47ever suffered. A goal for San Marino just 8.3 seconds into the match. The tale of this
00:54goal is a fascinating one, and he's told us all about it in the latest edition of 442.
01:00Look at that. Available now in all good retailers. Anyway, for the purposes of this video though,
01:07the role of David Galtieri will be told by me, Adam Monk. Just in case you were wondering
01:13why a 52-year-old bloke from San Marino sounds like a 24-year-old lad from Stockholm. Anyway,
01:20nonetheless, enjoy.
01:21In November 1993, English football was still plagued by hooliganism. Because of that, when
01:27we were scheduled to host England in the last qualifier for the 1994 World Cup, it was impossible
01:32for the match to be held at our normal home, the Stadio Olimpico di Saravelli in San Marino.
01:38Maybe 600 or 700 visitors arrived from England. Some stayed in Rimini, about 15 miles away
01:43from San Marino, and they caused quite a bit of trouble. It was all over the news for many,
01:47many days. As police units flooded in from everywhere to tackle them, that's why the
01:51match was switched to an alternative ground, to make crowd control much easier.
01:55The game was on a Wednesday evening, so on the Tuesday we travelled 65 miles north-west
02:00to Bologna, and headed straight to the Stadio Renato dell'Aro for our final training session.
02:06Massimo Benini was amongst our squad. He was the best player in the team. He was our point
02:10of reference on the pitch, who'd always push us up the field and drive us forward. He made
02:15us feel secure. He'd played for Juventus and Bologna, so he invited two of his friends,
02:20Ivano Benetti and Marco Di Marchi, to join us at training. They both played for Bologna
02:25as well. At the end of the session, we practised free kicks, and you could see the difference
02:29between them and us. They had a pub together in the city, which we popped to afterwards.
02:33We walked around town, and it was quite emotional. Everyone was looking at us in our smart San
02:37Marino tracksuits. We were a group of friends, and we'd joke with each other, simply to play
02:42against top internationals, guys we'd normally see on TV. It was already the prize for us.
02:47All we could do was give 100 per cent. It was unthinkable to ever keep up with the major
02:51nations, so whenever possible, we tried to keep the ball and use up some minutes, really.
02:56We suffered heavy defeats. No-one wanted to lose, but it was inevitable. Football belongs
03:00to everyone, not only the big teams and the great players.
03:03On the night of the match against England, I was nervous. I was 22, and it was my first
03:07time in the starting eleven for the national team. It was an important game for England.
03:11They were still fighting with the Netherlands for a spot at the World Cup. England had to
03:15beat us by a seven-goal margin, and hope that the Dutch lost in Poland.
03:19When the match kicked off, though, it all went so quickly. Bacchiocchi to Bernini, then
03:23to Monzaroli, back to Bacchiocchi, who immediately just tried to play it on to me. As I darted
03:29in from the right flank, his pass was way too powerful, but Stuart Pearce tried to tap
03:33the ball towards Seaman, and it fell short, and I was there. I accepted his gift, slipping
03:38past Pearce and nudging the ball beyond Seaman, with the tip of my foot to put us one-hill
03:42up. At first, I didn't really appreciate what
03:45had happened. I was pretty nippy then, a winger who could go one-on-one, but I never would
03:48have expected anything like that, against England, on my first start for San Marino.
03:53How can you imagine running 50 metres and then scoring like that? Okay, Usain Bolt needed
03:579.58 seconds to dash twice as far, but it's not quite the same thing.
04:02It wasn't until long after the final whistle when I left our changing room and several
04:05reporters were waiting outside for me, that I found out I'd known I'd broken a record
04:09for the fastest goal in a World Cup qualifier. Paul Ince struck in the equaliser, but that
04:14goal should have been ruled out. They'd been a clear foul beforehand. After they scored,
04:18it became harder and harder to match their intensity, and they were twice as strong as
04:22us and twice as fast. Those who represent San Marino these days
04:25are fitter than we were. We probably needed a drip feed to keep up with our rivals. I
04:30made a few tackles in that match that would have shattered any of my teammates, but I
04:33don't think England even felt a scratch. Pace lifted me up a couple of times, as if
04:37to say, move out of the way please, we're playing for real here.
04:40Luka Gabi was meant to be man-marking Les Ferdinand, but despite stepping on his foot
04:45to stop him from jumping, Luka was lifted into the air when Ferdinand decided he had
04:48to leap for a header. Davide, he makes me jump with him! Luka exclaimed
04:52to me at the end of the game. We eventually lost the match 7-1, which was
04:56a pity that night. I was upset about the 7 goals we conceded, rather than happy about
05:00the one I scored, but there was a giant gulf between the teams and we couldn't do much
05:04to hide it. Thankfully, the Dutch did win 3-1 in Poland
05:07to progress behind Norway. If they'd slipped up and my goal had stopped England going to
05:12the World Cup, it would have created a huge fuss, even bigger than the one it did.
05:16I hope it wasn't my goal that forced Graham Taylor to step down as manager, but rather
05:20the fact that they actually missed out on qualification. As it was, my goal was somehow
05:24accepted and almost welcomed back in England. I was on the front page of the next morning's
05:28Daily Mirror, alongside the headline, END OF THE WORLD. My parents had friends over
05:34in the UK and they sent me a copy. I had it framed and I still guard it jealously.
05:38I'm on Wikipedia and I've had a conversation with FIFA president Gianni Infantino who knows
05:43of my story. I became a hero in Scotland too, during qualifying for Euro 96. We were down
05:49in the same group as them. I was injured ahead of the away game so couldn't make the trip
05:52to Glasgow, but many supporters that day wore t-shirts saying, Galtieri, 8 seconds. I'd
05:58love to have got one. My teammates said the Scotland fans couldn't wait to see me play
06:02and that I was their idol because of what I'd done against England. My brother is a
06:06doctor and two years later he participated in a football tournament for European hospitals,
06:11which was actually in Scotland. When people heard that he was my brother, he enjoyed free
06:15food and drinks for two days. These days, I'm a computer salesman with a small company
06:19in a shop. Things turned out well and many of my teammates from that England game are
06:23doing fine. Our goalkeeper, Pierluigi Benedettini, has a bus company. He was at the
06:28wheel in 1993. He drove from San Marino to Bologna and back. Nicola Bacchiotti has a
06:33hardware store with his brother. Mirko Giannari works in the pharmaceutical industry and Loris
06:38Zanotti has a construction company. Mauro Valentini is an accountant. Massimo Benini
06:43is an estate agent. Claudio Conti works at San Marino Mail. Pierre Domenico Della Val
06:50is employed by the San Marino State Electrical Company. William Guerrera is a painter, while
06:55Pierangelo Manzaroli is the manager of a local football academy. I also coach San Giovanni,
07:01a small futsal club here. There are 30,000 people in San Marino and even now, 30 years
07:06on, everyone remembers me and my goal. I did something unique, a feat that the locals directly
07:11associate with their country. My pals and I still talk about it when we go out for dinner.
07:15They show me pictures of me 30 years ago, when I still had all my hair. They joke, 8
07:20seconds? That's exactly how long you last in bed. And that that watch must have been
07:23damaged. Months ago, a few English guys living in Rimini would walk into my shop and ask
07:28to take pictures with me. A young Japanese director did a documentary on San Marino and
07:32came to gather footage. I also hosted producers and cameramen of an English TV production
07:37company based near Buckingham Palace. In 2020, a British TV channel made a series, Reuniting
07:43England Icons. It was called Harry's Heroes and they set up a few friendly matches around
07:47Europe. They played a game against Germany and another here in San Marino. Their manager,
07:52Harry Redknapp, came to my shop with John Barnes, who was as crazy as a horse. He was
07:56also a very funny guy. The show wasn't entirely about me, but I had an important role to play
08:00due to what had happened in Bologna. At the beginning of our rematch against England Legends,
08:05it was all about whether I could score again after 8 seconds. Obviously, I couldn't. Matt
08:10LaTissier was in their team and still an excellent player. The nicest part of it all was finally
08:14meeting David Seaman and talking to him. I'd been longing for that to happen. We drank
08:18a beer together after the game and discussed life. He's massive. Like a wardrobe. I still
08:23can't believe I scored against him. He says he loves to go fishing and he's enjoying retirement.
08:28We swapped shirts and took photos together. He was really gentle and friendly with me.
08:32However, with all due respect to him and Gibraltar, scoring against England isn't the same as
08:36doing it against them. That's the way it is, though. Records were always there to be broken
08:40and one day his record will fall too. Especially now that you don't have kickoff by touching
08:44the ball forward, you can save up half a second, really. I'm more than happy about how my
08:48career panned out. I also played against the Dutch, taking to the pitch alongside Frank
08:52Rijkaard, Frank de Boer, Mark Overmaars and Dennis Bergkamp as well, who was a superstar
08:57at Inter with Aaron Winter. For the under-21s, I earned the chance to line up against Robert
09:01Prozinecki and Vladimir Djugovic, two champions from the old Yugoslavia. And then came that
09:07moment, my one amazing moment, followed by the end of the world headliner, my chat with
09:11David Seaman many years later. To come full circle, I'd love to meet Stuart Pearce as
09:15well one day. I'm sorry that people still associate him with that mistake, but I'm not
09:19sure he cares now. We swapped shirts at the end of the match but never spoke about what
09:22happened or how we felt, really. Either on that night or at any time since. We've not
09:27had the opportunity to talk again, although I'd like to. I owe him a favour. One beer,
09:32perhaps even two or three if he wants. They'll be on me.