- 08/06/2025
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 in only
00:098.3 seconds. So fast that I surprised not just David Seaman, but all the photographers too.
00:14Our stadium in San Marino displays images of various players and goals, though none of our
00:19most famous strike. Unfortunately, all that exists is a still of television footage. Too fuzzy to be
00:26hung on a wall, but those 8.3 seconds changed my life. People still know me and that goal against England.
00:34Oh, hello everyone. Adam Muck here, and this is the incredible story of David Galtieri.
00:41The man who inflicted arguably the most embarrassing moment the England national team ever, ever, ever
00:47suffered. A goal for San Marino just 8.3 seconds into the match. The tale of this goal is a fascinating
00:56one. And he's told us all about it in the latest edition of 442. Look at that. Available now
01:02in all good retailers. Anyway, for the purposes of this video, though, the role of David Galtieri
01:09will be told by me, Adam Muck. Just in case you were wondering why a 52-year-old bloke from San
01:15Marino sounds like a 24-year-old lad from Stockport. Anyway, nonetheless, 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 from
01:43San Marino, and they caused quite a bit of trouble. It was all over the news for many, many days.
01:48Police units flooded in from everywhere to tackle them. That's why the match was switched
01:52to 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 Bonetti 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
02:28between 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 Marino
02:38tracksuits. We were a group of friends, and we'd joke with each other, simply to play against
02:43top internationals. Guys we'd normally see on TV. It was already the prize for us. All
02:47we could do was give 100%. It was unthinkable to ever keep up with the major nations, so
02:52whenever possible we tried to keep the ball and use up some minutes really. We suffered
02:56heavy defeats. No one wanted to lose, but it was inevitable. Football belongs to everyone,
03:01not 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 time
03:08in the starting XI for the national team. It was an important game for England. They were
03:11still fighting with the Netherlands for a spot at the World Cup. England had to beat
03:15us by a 7 goal margin, and hope that the Dutch lost in Poland.
03:19When the match kicked off though, it all went so quickly. Bacchiocci to Benigni, then to
03:23Monzeroli, back to Bacchiocci, who immediately just tried to play it onto me. As I darted in
03:29from the right flank, his pass was way too powerful. But Stuart Pearce tried to tap the ball towards
03:34Seaman and it fell short, and I was there. I accepted his gift, slipping past Pearce and nudging
03:39the ball beyond Seaman, with the tip of my foot to put us one hill up.
03:42At first, I didn't really appreciate what had happened. I was pretty nippy then, a winger
03:47who could go 1-on-1, but I never would have expected anything like that. Against England,
03:51on my first start for San Marino. How can you imagine running 50 metres and then scoring
03:55like that? Okay, Usain Bolt needed 9.58 seconds to dash twice as far, but it's not quite the
04:01same thing.
04:02It wasn't until long after the final whistle, when I left our changing room and several reporters
04:05were waiting outside for me, that I found out I'd known I'd break a record for the fastest
04:09goal in a World Cup qualifier. Paul Ince struck in the equaliser, but that goal should have
04:14been ruled out. They'd been a clear foul beforehand. After they scored, it became harder and harder
04:19to match their intensity, and they were twice as strong as us, and twice as fast. Those who represent
04:24San Marino these days are fitter than we were. We probably needed a drip feed to keep up with
04:28our rivals. I made a few tackles in that match that would have shattered any of my teammates,
04:32but I don't think England even felt a scratch. Pearce lifted me up a couple of times, as if
04:37to say, move out the way please, we're playing for real here.
04:40Luca Gabi was meant to be man marking Les Ferdinand, but despite stepping on his foot
04:45to stop him from jumping, Luca was lifted into the air when Ferdinand decided he had to leap
04:49for a header.
04:50Davide, he makes me jump with him! Luca exclaimed to me at the end of the game. We eventually
04:54lost the match 7-1, which was a pity that night. I was upset about the 7 goals we conceded,
04:59rather than happy about the one that I scored, but there was a giant gulf between the teams
05:03and we couldn't do much to hide it. Thankfully, the Dutch did win 3-1 in Poland to progress
05:08behind Norway. If they'd slipped up and my goal had stopped England going to the World Cup,
05:13it would have created a huge fuss, even bigger than the one it did. I hope it wasn't my
05:17goal that forced Graham Taylor to step down as manager, but rather the fact that they
05:21actually missed out on qualification. As it was, my goal was somehow accepted and almost
05:25welcomed back in England. I was on the front page of the next morning's Daily Mirror,
05:29alongside the headline, End of the World. My parents had friends over in the UK and they
05:34sent me a copy. I had it framed and I still guard it jealously. I'm on Wikipedia and I've
05:40had a conversation with FIFA President Gianni Infantino who knows of my story. I became a
05:44hero in Scotland too. During qualifying for Euro 96, we were down in the same group as them.
05:50I was injured ahead of the away game so couldn't make the trip to Glasgow, but many supporters
05:54that day wore t-shirt saying, Galtieri, 8 seconds. I'd love to have got one. My teammates said
06:00the Scotland fans couldn't wait to see me play and that I was their idol because of
06:04what I'd done against England. My brother is a doctor and two years later he participated
06:08in a football tournament for European hospitals, which was actually in Scotland. When people
06:13heard that he was my brother, he enjoyed free food and drinks for two days. These days
06:17I'm a computer salesman with a small company in a shop. Things turned out well and many of
06:21my teammates from that England game are doing fine. Our goalkeeper, Pierluigi Benedettini,
06:26has a bus company. He was at the wheel in 1993. He drove from San Marino to Bologna and back.
06:32Nicola Bacchiacci has a hardware store with his brother. Mirko Giannari works in the pharmaceutical
06:37industry and Loris Zanotti has a construction company. Mauro Valentini is an accountant. Massimo
06:43Benigni is an estate agent. Claudio Conti works at San Marino Mail. And Pier Domenico Della
06:50Val is employed by the San Marino State Electrical Company. William Guerrera is a painter, while
06:55Pier Angelo 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, eight seconds,
07:20that's exactly how long you last in bed. And that that watch must have been damaged. Months ago,
07:24a few English guys living in Rimini would walk into my shop and ask to take pictures with me. A
07:29young Japanese director did a documentary on San Marino and came to gather footage. I also hosted
07:35producers and cameramen of an English TV production company based near Buckingham Palace. In 2020,
07:40a British TV channel made a series, Reuniting England Icons. It was called Harry's Heroes,
07:45and they set up a few friendly matches around Europe. They played a game against Germany and
07:49another here in San Marino. Their manager, Harry Redknapp, came to my shop with John Barnes,
07:54who was as crazy as a horse. He was also a very funny guy. The show wasn't entirely about me,
07:59but I had an important role to play due to what had happened in Bologna. At the beginning of our
08:03rematch against England Legends, it was all about whether I could score again after eight seconds.
08:08Obviously, I couldn't. Matt LaTissier was in their team and still an excellent player.
08:12The nicest part of it all was finally meeting David Seaman and talking to him. I'd been longing for
08:17that to happen. We drank a beer together after the game and discussed life. He's massive,
08:21like a wardrobe. I still can't believe I scored against him. He says he loves to go fishing and
08:26he's enjoying retirement. We swapped shirts and took photos together. He was really gentle and friendly
08:31with me. However, with all due respect to him and Gibraltar, scoring against England isn't the
08:36same as doing 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 the
08:44ball forward, you can save up half a second really. I'm more than happy about how my career panned out.
08:48I also played against the Dutch, taking to the pitch alongside Frank Rijkaard, Frank De Boer,
08:54Mark Overmars and Dennis Bergkamp as well, who was a superstar at Inter with Aaron Winter.
08:58For the under-21s, I earned the chance to line up against Robert Prozinecki and Vladimir Djugovic,
09:03two champions from the old Yugoslavia. And then came that moment, my one amazing moment,
09:08followed by the end of the world headliner, my chat with David Seaman many years later.
09:13To come full circle, I'd love to meet Stuart Pearce as well one day. I'm sorry that people
09:17still associate him with that mistake, but I'm not sure he cares now. We swapped shirts at the
09:21end of the match, but never spoke about what happened or how we felt really, either on that
09:25night or at any time since. We've not had the opportunity to talk again, although I'd like to.
09:30I owe him a favour. One beer, perhaps even two or three if he wants. They'll be on me.
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