Beckham strike voted best from half-way in Premier League history

“David Beckham, surely an England player of the future, scores a goal that will be talked about and replayed for years.” – John Motson, August 17, 1996.

And the famous commentator wasn’t wrong, given that it’s 20 years to the day since Golden Balls scored that goal for Manchester United in their season opener at Wimbledon.

To mark the occasion, we asked our followers to vote for the best goal from the half-way line that they’ve seen in the Premier League – and rather fittingly it’s Becks who topped the poll with 40 per cent of the votes.

Who scored the Premier League’s best halfway line goal?

— Ladbrokes (@Ladbrokes) August 17, 2016

United were 2-0 winners at Selhurst Park when Beckham picked the ball up in his own half, noticing Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan off his line, and what happened next was history.

This was the first of eight Premier League goals for Beckham in the 1996-97 campaign, and the future England captain would go on to win PFA Young Player of the Year award in a season which saw Alex Ferguson lift his fourth Premier League title.

Elsewhere in today’s vote, it was a close battle for second place between Xabi Alonso and Charlie Adam, but the Scottish midfielder came out on top with 23 per cent, while Maynor Figueroa’s wonderstrike was some way off challenging Becks in fourth place with just 17 per cent.

And while we’re on the subject of unbelievable strikes from the half-way line, a special mention has to go to last November’s Ladbrokes Master at Work Josh Chamberlain, who hit this beauty…

Do you think it can be done again?

We’re offering 10/1 for a Premier League player to score from his own half this season, while it’s 100/1 that someone manages to do it in the top-flight this weekend…

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.