bundesliga

The cheekiest goals in Bundesliga history

12.09.2023

The brilliant footballers of the Bundesliga have bamboozled defences from time to time with some simply outrageous strikes.

There are two things that every delightfully cheeky goal has in common - the ability to spot a chance where others can't and the skill to execute that.

Grafite dancing his way across the entire Bayern Munich defence as Wolfsburg took an incredible title win in 2008/09 is one such iconic moment, but there has been no short supply of similar corkers since the Bundesliga's inauguration in 1963. Giovane Élber pulled off a rather different but similarly staggering strike in 1998/99, for instance, by curling the ball from close to the corner flag into an open goal for Bayern.

It might be hard to distinguish luck from genius at first glance in some of the strikes. When Mario Basler curled in a corner for Werder Bremen in 1994/95 it may have been written off as a fluke, had he not repeated the exact same trick two further times that season.

Jay-Jay Okocha's sensational goal against Karlsruhe is one of the most iconic in Bundesliga history - Uwe Kraft/imago images

Having a great footballing mind clearly helps in serving up a cheeky goal, as current Bayer Leverkusen coach Xabi Alonso showed by drilling a free-kick under a leaping wall and into the corner of the net for Bayern in 2014/15.

Sometimes the sheer technical finesse on display speaks for itself - such as Matheus Cunha's twist and chip for Leipzig, Schalke legend Raul's dinky lob or a top-class Florian Wirtz and Nadiem Amiri double act for Leverkusen.

Then there are those cheeky strikes where the helplessness of the opposition highlights the incredible talent on display. Jay-Jay Okocha's legendary dribble around the entire Karlsruhe defence and goalkeeper Oliver Kahn in August 1993 is one such iconic Bundesliga moment that never gets old. Some of the defenders might just have their head in a spin to this day...