Troy Deeney packed plenty into his 20-year career, rising from non-league obscurity to the Premier League, with a CV that includes more than 700 senior appearances, two promotions to the top flight, plus an FA Cup final appearance.
The former Watford and Birmingham City striker scored more than 200 goals during this time, but when it came to the most dramatic strike of his career, one particular goal stands out.
His 97th-minute stunner for the Hornets against Leicester City in the 2013 Championship play-off semi-final second leg, which came seconds after a missed Foxes penalty, propelled Watford to the Wembley final and gave the Vicarage Road faithful one of their most memorable moments of a generation.
Troy Deeney on his Leicester City strike
However, looking back at that goal now, Deeney admits it took him a while to appreciate the goal - purely as Watford did not end up winning promotion that term.
“I didn’t appreciate that goal for a long time – we lost in the play-off final,” he tells FourFourTwo, recalling the subsequent defeat to Crystal Palace at Wembley. However, the goal has remained a part of footballing folklore.
“But with TikTok, my five-year-old recreates it around the house and celebrates it,” Deeney adds, illustrating just how deeply the moment has embedded itself into popular culture.
“I went to the Club World Cup with Talksport and my wife said she’d been mobbed by people going, ‘Oh my god, that goal’. They can tell you where they were and what they were doing when it happened.
“I’m very fortunate – there are people who had much better careers than me, but they haven’t got a moment like that, while I managed to have one.”
Leicester’s response to their near-miss that season was to win the Championship the following campaign and within three years they had claimed their historic Premier League title.
“I take all the credit for that!” Deeney laughs. “I tell big Wes Morgan all the time that he owes me a watch or something.
“My kids are at the age now where they like to watch YouTube, and my daughter managed to find the whole game, so we watched it when we were on holiday recently.
“Harry Kane was on the bench for Leicester, Jamie Vardy was on the bench. It was two teams attacking, we both just went for it. My goal came from that.”
