Troy Deeney has claimed his play-off semi-final goal against Leicester City is in the top-two most memorable moments in football, ever.
It’s 11 years to the day since the Watford hero’s famous 2013 strike, which is without a doubt one of the most iconic scenes in Championship history.
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The chants of ‘cheat’ as Anthony Knockaert dived to win a penalty, the cheers as he was denied by Manuel Almunia – twice – and then stunned silence and absolute raptures as Watford raced down the opposite end to score, with a topless Deeney sprinting away in celebration.
It’s a scene etched in the minds of every Watford fan who was there that day, and an image the Foxes faithful will never be able to fully erase.
And Deeney is clearly quite proud of it.
“I think it’s second to Aguero’s [goal] in English football, personally,” he said on That Peter Crouch Podcast.
“You might think I’m being arrogant and you can tell me to f*** off, no problem, but is there any other moments other than those two where you can remember exactly where you were when you saw it [and] what you were doing?”
Then, speaking to YouTube channel Rising Ballers, he went further by saying it’s up there as one of the most memorable goals in football. Period.
Not only did he say it’s up there on par with Aguero’s Premier League title-winning strike for Man City, he also claimed it was more memorable than David Beckham’s iconic free-kick against Greece – which sent England to the 2002 World Cup.
Deeney said on the podcast: “That was the best moment in my career, and I’ve only just started to appreciate it now that I’m finished, because we lost in the final I always thought it was a waste.”
Clik here to view.
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Deeney’s goal meant Watford beat Leicester 3-2 in the play-off semi-finals, but the Hornets went on to lose 1-0 to Crystal Palace at the Wembley final to miss out in the race for Premier League promotion.
He went on: “But now I can go anywhere in the world – and you might think I’m lying, but I don’t ever lie – and somebody will go ‘I saw your goal vs Leicester and I know where I was’.
“I could be biassed, but I think there are two moments in football where you remember where you were when they happened – I think that’s me and Aguero.
“There’s great times, like when Man United won the treble, you remember the goal and the match but you don’t remember where you were or how you felt.
“That’s just my opinion. I think they are the two [his goal and Aguero’s]. I don’t think anyone can tell me another moment… and not just in the Premier League, anywhere.
“Like Beckham’s free-kick against Greece, it’s a good moment but you don’t remember, ‘I was in that boozer doing this’.
“But if I said to you, ‘Troy Deeney, that Watford goal against Leicester’, you go, ‘Bang, oh my God that was crazy’, and you can tell me who the commentator was, how it happened and where you were at that time – same with Aguero.
Clik here to view.
“It’s just two moments, I feel like as a commentator everyone is trying to get that moment now, they’re all trying to do it for themselves, but I just think it was so genuine and authentic, both that and the Aguero moment.
“You have to start appreciating it because much better footballers than me have had unbelievable careers, but they’ve never had ‘a moment’.
“I can honestly say I’ve been to some lovely places around the world, some places they don’t have TVs and they’re like, ‘You play for that team in yellow’.
“That genuinely was said to be in the Maldives. A guy was like, ‘You play for that team in yellow, that goal you scored, man, oh my God’.
“I was like, ‘Oh s**t!
“I’ve been able to live it and appreciate it a little bit more now that I’m older and my kids know it – they tell me it’s been watched nearly 1billion times on YouTube, so it must be alright.”