Romanian goalkeeper neither before nor after May 1986 Helmut Dukadam He wasn’t seen as one of the best in the world, he wasn’t a regular in symbolic teams, he didn’t stare at fans from magazine covers. Even in Romania, no one called Hellmuth the best: he had only two fights for the national team in the early 1980s and was never invited there again.
But on May 7, 1986, everything changed. Today Steaua, played by Dukadam, faced Barcelona in the European Cup final. (now Champions League). The Catalan club had never been the best in Europe until then. And even Blaugrana reached the final only once – in 1961, when the trophy went to Benfica.
And now the Catalans have a great chance: the final in Spain is against the humble Steaua at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville. On the way to the decisive match, Barca knocked out Prague Sparta, the current owner of CEC Juventus, Porto (with Platini and Laudrup in the team) and Sweden’s Gothenburg from the tournament. The list of Steaua victims looked much more modest: Danish Vejle, Hungarian Honved, Finnish Kuusysi and Anderlecht.
Before the final, all experts and fans, except Romanian, bet on Barcelona. The dealers at Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan started selling badges with the inscription: Barcelona won the Champions Cup long before the match. The “Tower” is filled with firecrackers, firecrackers and rocket launchers to celebrate the success of your favorite team in a big way. Banquet halls are reserved for restaurants in Seville…
However, neither in the main nor in the extra time, “Blaugrana” Dukadam did not open his door. Neither star Bernd Schuster nor Barça’s striker Steve Archibald from Tottenham Hotspur bought it for a record £1.25m from Tottenham Hotspur could distinguish themselves. Zeros on the scoreboard after four halves meant that the winner of the Cup would be determined in a penalty shootout.
Then came Dukadam’s finest hour! Romanian goalkeeper scores four penalty kicks in a rowHis Spanish counterpart, Javier Urruticoechea, parried “only” two blows. It’s hard to believe even now, but neither Alesanko, nor Pedraza, nor Pichi Alonso, nor Marcos Alonso consistently scored against Hellmuth – none of the Catalan stars!
This is how Dukadam himself described his incredible success – he managed to calculate the psychology of his opponents:
“The first penalty was taken by their captain. Alexander. I looked at him carefully and assumed from the movement of his body that the blow would be delivered by me to the right corner. I froze in anticipation of the crash and pulled the ball from the right corner. The second penalty was already a matter of psychology – I put myself in the place of the striker. he is PedrazaWho would have thought that now that I was pulling the ball to the right, I would jump to the left.
I knew he might have thought about it because Barcelona goalkeeper Urruti also shot from Mazharu’s shot into his own left corner and then dealt with a try from Laszlo Beleni, who shot in the opposite direction. So what did I do? Despite being the best shot of all Barça’s attempts, I jumped right again and hit the ball.
It was already easier with the third penalty. It makes sense for the next opponent to decide that they would probably prefer a different angle now, as the goalkeeper jumped to the right twice. Here alonso and I hit the right and the second time I hit the ball, correctly predicting the course of events. The fourth penalty was the hardest for me because I didn’t really know what to do. Jump right again or change direction?
And I put myself in my place. Marcos Alonso. He probably thought: because this goalkeeper has jumped into the right corner three times, it means that he has definitely chosen this option and won’t change anything. As a result, I bet the penalty would go into the left corner. And I was already heading in the right direction when Marcos made the move to attack.
Steaua’s victory in the Champions Cup was a moment of triumph for Dukadam: he was recognized as the Romanian Footballer of the Year and placed eighth among the Ballon d’Or nominees. Unfortunately, it was not possible to achieve success: just two months after the final, Hellmuth took a career break as he had cured atherosclerosis. Treatment and recovery took three full years, and doctors once even considered amputating the goalkeeper’s hand.
Returning to the field in 1989, Dukadam played two seasons for Romanian minor league team Vagonul, after which he finally hung his gloves. His story is a methodological guide that you can go down in history in just 15 minutes. And for this it is not even necessary to repeat the act of Herostratus.
💥💥💥 You won’t believe it, but only a few beat this game! Although it may seem very easy to everyone at first!
