Goalkeeper Sets Unofficial Record For Dumbest Dive Of All Time

Mario Felgueiras is a 31-year-old journeyman goalkeeper. On Sunday, he saved a penalty to help Paços de Ferreira upset first-place Porto 1-0, pulling Os Castores (The Beavers) out of the relegation zone in Liga NOS. But all his heroics will be overshadowed by what might be the worst football dive in the history of the game.

The typical profile of a diver, one who flops in order to gain an advantage, is that of an offensive player seeking an unfair advantage. Usually floppers go down in the box trying to deceive the referee to award a penalty kick, other times they’ll settle for a dangerous free kick and there are also those who just run out of ideas and fall down. 

But not Mario Felgueiras. The Paços de Ferreira net minder took a dive in his own box, 100 yards from the opposition goal, with the ball already having been played harmlessly out of bounds. 

It’s baffling, shocking, pathetic and absolutely hilarious. 

Felgueiras is seen clutching his leg as though he caught the studs of a boot from Vincent Aboubakar, despite replays showing the Porto forward wasn’t anywhere close to touching Felgueiras. We’d like to give Felgueiras the benefit of the doubt; perhaps he fell awkwardly on his foot. But him clutching his leg would appear to be clear evidence to the contrary; he was attempting to draw a red card on Aboubakar.

Did Mario Felgueiras commit the worst football dive in the history of the sport? Photo: @maisfutebol | Twitter

What exactly Felgueiras was trying to accomplish with this worst football dive ever is hard to say, but we have a few theories:

• He stepped on a green Lego imperceptible to cameras.
• Vincent Aboubakar is actually an airbender.
• Mario Felgueiras momentarily shifted into an alternate universe where Aboubakar actually did touch him, then instantly returned to his first universe to writhe in pain.
• A sniper in the crowd shot him with a tiny dart that inflicted serious pain but only for a minute and only in his leg. 
• Porto joined Benfica in hiring a witch doctor, who stuck a pin in a Felgueiras voodoo doll. 
• He was trying to impress Mauricio Pochettino for a move to Tottenham. 
• Mario Felgueiras just committed the worst football dive ever and there was no actual excuse other than the fact Porto’s total market value is more than 13 times greater than that of Paços de Ferreira and the Portuguese keeper was just trying to give his team a chance.