Michael Donald – “I Scored a Goal in the World Cup Final”

June 2010

Michael Donald has spent a whole year in a quest to photograph the most exclusive band of brothers in football - the 34 surviving scorers of World Cup Final goals for his forthcoming book “I Scored a Goal in the World Cup Final” and his film documentary of the same name. Working closely with Direct to gain access to Phase One backs, Michael covered several continents capturing footballers before bringing the images to Metro to create prints for the forthcoming book.

Belfast-born, award winning photographer and film-maker, Michael Donald, since August 2009 has tracked down, interviewed and shot pictures of every living player who scored in a World Cup final. He found about half are still involved in football, while some of those who played before the lucrative professional era are working in a variety of industries as salesmen and even one who is a vintner.

Players involved include: Geoff Hurst (England 1966), Martin Peters (England, 1966), Pele (Brazil 1958, 1970), (France 1998) & Ronaldo (Brazil 2002).

“The thing you have to remember is, if you score a goal in the World Cup now, if you even go to the World Cup now, you’re playing at a level where you’ll never have to work again,” said Donald.

While “none of them are sorry cases or down on their luck”, Donald said that, after their careers were over, many players had to make a living doing something else. “Often a player would take the money from his testimonial and buy a pub. All of the players from before 1986 had to find jobs. Some have gone on to manage clubs, but just being a footballer doesn’t qualify you to manage a club. So what [else] are you qualified to do? The answer, quite honestly, is nothing,” he said

The documentary “I Scored a goal in the World Cup Final” is to be broadcast by ESPN, an American sports channel, on the eve of this year’s final in South Africa.

Watch this space for details of the book launch for the exhibition.

Click here for more information on Michael Donald’s World Cup story

Click here to view the documentary on the ESPN website

Click here for the Weekend Guardian article “And then it hit the back of the net..”

Click here for a more in-depth interview with Michael Donald.