Pablo Daniel Osvaldo has received support from Karl Heinz Rummenigge in the wake of the Roma forward’s incorrectly disallowed strike against Lecce.
Pablo Daniel Osvaldo has received support from Karl Heinz Rummenigge in the wake of the Roma forward’s incorrectly disallowed strike against Lecce.
Osvaldo netted with a spectacular overhead kick on Sunday evening but saw the effort ruled out for offside, whilst replays demonstrated it was an incorrect decision. In the wake of seeing a likely contender for Goal of the Season chalked off, Osvaldo has received commiserations from former Inter striker Rummenigge.
The German forward reminisced on a similar situation he found himself in when in action for the Nerazzurri in a UEFA Cup tie against Rangers in October 1984. With the ball lobbed into the box, Rummenigge let it move across his body on the turn at head height before, six yards from goal, exacting a high-kick action to beat the Rangers goalkeeper.
The goal was disallowed as referee Volker Roth adjudged that the German international had caught a Rangers defender in performing the action, ruling it out as dangerous play. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport this week, Rummenigge remembered that Roth had then gone into the Inter dressing room at full-time to ask for his shirt.
“I was very angry. I had just seen the replay on the television. Incredible. It was the best goal of my career, he had whistled for a nonexistent dangerous play.
“I was angry, but [teammate Alessandro] Altobelli came over. His pulling [me back] was a kick up the backside, I stopped just in time.
“It was not a classic overhead kick, but a more an acrobatic stunt to meet the ball laterally at height. It was a rare movement, unique. The impact was perfect.
“Then I saw the defender on the ground and the referee gives them a free-kick. He did not understand that it was a dive. The people, however, were all standing, applauding for a long time, too bad it wasn’t a goal.
“Roth took away the most beautiful strike of my career and I could not give him my shirt.”