The 1976 European Championship final still sends shivers down Antonin Panenka's spine. Fifty years on, his iconic penalty against West Germany remains etched in football history, a moment that not only sealed the trophy for Czechoslovakia but also changed the face of penalty-taking forever.
It was a day of high drama at Belgrade's Red Star Stadium as the match ended 2-2 after extra time. The tension mounted as the first-ever penalty shootout in a major international tournament loomed large. West Germany's Uli Hoeness missed his kick, handing Panenka the chance to seal victory with a single strike. And what a strike it was! His delicate chip floated down the middle, leaving Sepp Maier grasping at thin air as he dived to one side.
Panenka has spoken candidly about his long-standing feud with Maier, who he claims went 35 years without uttering a word to him. There were even reports of Maier having a shooting target with Panenka's face on it! But now, the two have put their differences aside and get on well enough.
The 'Panenka' penalty has its roots in a friendly penalty competition between Panenka and his club goalkeeper Zdenek Hruska two years prior to the final. Panenka was desperate to turn his fortunes around after consistently losing bets that involved buying beers or chocolate. And so, he concocted the idea of chipping the ball centrally, exploiting goalkeepers' natural instinct to dive. "It worked immediately," he remembers with a smile.
While the move remained largely unknown outside Czechoslovakia until the 1976 final, Panenka watches with pride as other top players like Zinedine Zidane and Andrea Pirlo have successfully replicated his technique on grand stages. He chuckles at the thought of not earning any royalties from it, explaining that attempts to patent the move during the Communist era in Czechoslovakia were unsuccessful.