Video: Surprisingly bad back-heeled penalty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnKW-yVTSrM

By their very definition, back-heeled penalties should be a thing of beauty. This effort by the United Arab Emirates’ Awana Diab isn’t.

Leading 5-2 in a meaningless friendly against Lebanon at the weekend, Diab rubbed salt in the wounds of his opponents by running up to the ball, spinning and back-heeling the ball to the net.

As the ball crawled towards the net at a snail’s pace, the ‘keeper should really have done better, but he was perhaps put off by the ridiculousness of Diab’s approach to the kick, or more plausibly, with only ten minutes remaining and his side trailing by three goals, he just didn’t give a sh*t.

Diab’s kick didn’t get the plaudits he felt it deserved, however. A number of Lebanon players looked genuinely angry at him after the penalty, while he was immediately substituted by UAE manager Srecko Katanec, who promised to discipline him for what he called a “disrespectful act”.

For a lesson on how it should be done properly, Diab should check out this clip of Francesco Totti doing something similar in training a few years back.