The Goalkeeper Save That Was So Crazy It’s Still Talked About 30 Years Later
In 1995, an international friendly between England and Colombia at Wembley barely drew attention, and approximately 21,000 people showed up. At the time, England were recovering from a failed World Cup qualification, and Colombia were experimenting with lineups. The game moved along without anything interesting.
Then, Colombian goalkeeper René Higuita did something that erased every dull minute before it. Instead of catching a slow ball headed his way, he launched into the air and cleared it with his heels—head down, legs up, like a scorpion striking. That decision instantly became one of football’s most iconic moments and is still talked about three decades later.
A Move Born on a Commercial Set in Colombia
The idea behind the scorpion kick didn’t come during a match or a training session. Higuita said it came to him while filming a soda commercial in Colombia. During the shoot, a boy kicked the ball behind his back in a way that stuck with him, and Higuita tried it for himself.
Over time, he started practicing it regularly at training and waited for a chance to use it in a real game. Then, two years later, on September 6, 1995, Jamie Redknapp mishit a cross at Wembley, and it looped toward goal. Higuita judged the flight, leaned forward, and kicked his legs behind him to clear the ball with his heels.
It was the moment he’d been preparing for. The linesman had raised his flag, but the referee hadn’t blown the whistle. After all, football had just witnessed one of the most bizarre and inventive saves ever seen.
The Scorpion Kick Wasn’t a One-Off Trick
This wasn’t the first time René Higuita challenged the usual limits of his position. He often stepped out of his area, passed under pressure, dribbled around forwards, and took free kicks.
Long before the term “sweeper-keeper” was common, Higuita was already playing that way. He positioned himself higher up the field and wanted the ball at his feet. Instead of kicking it long when defenders passed back to him, he looked to find teammates, even with opponents closing him down. That style was unusual for goalkeepers at the time, and it became part of the reason FIFA tightened the back-pass rule in 1992 to discourage keepers from holding onto the ball and slowing down play.
After that point, goalkeepers were no longer allowed to handle deliberate passes from their own teammates. This was made mandatory to speed up play and reduce time-wasting.
His Playing Career Matched His Style
René Higuita made his professional debut in 1985 with Millonarios and immediately stood out. He was a confident goalkeeper and also scored goals. The following year, he joined Atlético Nacional, the club he supported as a child.
In 1989, he helped Nacional become the first Colombian team to win the Copa Libertadores. The team went all the way to the finals, where he saved three penalties and scored one himself. That same year, he won the Copa Interamericana and soon earned a national team call-up.
By the 1990 World Cup, Higuita had become a central figure in Colombia’s system. His style worked well until he tried to dribble past Roger Milla in the Round of 16 against Cameroon, and got caught. As a result, Colombia were eliminated.
The goalkeeper followed that up with a short stint in Spain with Real Valladolid and then returned to Nacional. He played there until the late 1990s and has been credited with scoring over 40 goals during his 24-year career.