Five goals that I can never forget

Goal 1

I would have been 7 at the time of Italia 90, my memories of the tournament are a little fuzzy but I do know that the colours, sounds and stories blew my mind and got me hooked on football. Cameroon left the biggest impact on me. I think it was the beautiful kit, the exoticness and the unpredictable nature of their game. Roger Milla, of course, symbolised all of this to me and his second against Cameroon, when he embarrassed Columbian keeper Higuita to put Cameroon into the last 16, is something I'll never forget. I also remember copying his trademark celebration for far longer than I should have.

Goal 2

In 1991Paul Gascoigne was already a huge cultural icon but this goal against Oxford United (along with the fact that he physique mirrored mine at the time) was what made him my favourite ever player. I remember that it was a cold and dark weekend so there wasn't much else for me to do but sit down to watch one of the few live games shown on TV. This is the first game that I remember watching for the full 90 minutes, I guess I was lucky it was such a good one. I was transfixed by what I saw. It seemed that Gazza was so much better than everyone else on show that day and this goal typified his performance. My main memory of the goal is the tight angle from which he squeezed in his finish, if anything I remember it being even more acute.

Goal 3

I think this goal from Koeman in 1993 was probably the first time I had been angry about football. Up to this point football had been nothing but happy memories but when Koeman did this to England, stopping us qualifying for the 94 World Cup, I realised that the lows of being a football fan would probably come more often than the highs. I'm sure you know the story, Koeman should have been sent off shortly before he did this, I've never been able to forgive him, even when he became manager for Everton I wanted him to fail. Some fantastic commentary is probably another reason I can never forget this goal.

Goal 4

During the early to mid 90's I still hadn't settled on my team. I had started as a Liverpool fan, become a Spurs fan (see goal 2) before following everyone else to become a United fan. So in 1995 I started the FA Cup final hoping to see Steve Bruce lift the trophy but, when this goal from Paul Rideout went in I lept up cheering (much o the surprise of everyone I was watching with). I realised at that moment that I was actually an Everton fan and it felt great to see them win the cup. I have supported them ever since, they haven't won anything since. However, I am still grateful to Rideout for scoring this goal and showing me where my true loyalties were.

Goal 5

In 2002 I was in my second year of University. When Wayne Rooney announced himself to the world with this goal to end Arsenal's long unbeaten run I couldn't help but dream about what this young player would go on to achieve, hopefully at Everton. But I didn't want to get too excited, I had seen this before. Players who are expected to do great things disappear before they are 20 without achieving anything. I went back to my dorm and wrote my first published football article refuting Clive Tyldesley's plea to 'remember the name Wayne Rooney'. I explained how Wayne Rooney was destined to be forgotten in a few years and would never reach the heights predicted. How it was wrong to place too much pressure on young players. Turned out I was wrong about that

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/d1aa31_a1362362125f49d2bcaac7048d870599/720p/mp4/file.mp4

Thanks for reading/watching. I'd love to know which goals have influenced you as a football fan. Remember you can follow me @kevindunkerley