149-0: The Most Lopsided Game in Club Football History

It is official. You can now add Panagiotis Pontikos’ name to the record book. Just make sure you spell it correctly. According to research done by myself and by the Guardian (ok, mainly by them), his 16 goals in one game is worthy of a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most goals scored by a single player in a game. He has to share the glory, however, because Racing Club forward Stephan Stanis also scored 16 goals in a game in France way back in 1942.

The folks at the Knowledge go on to explain that even though the 24-3 butt whipping Pontikos’ side put on their opponents is impressive, it is nowhere near the record for biggest margin of victory in club football. That belongs to a team from the football hotbed known as Madagascar.

AS Adema (not to be confused with the rock band Adema) beat Stade Olymique L’Emyrne 149-0 in 2002. Yes, you read that correctly. 149-0. The even more amazing part of this story is that AS Adema did it without scoring a goal.

Their opponents, Stade Olymique L’Emyrne, took complete control of the national league game, reducing Adema to the role of onlookers, as they deliberately plonked the ball in the back of their own net 149 times, in protest over a refereeing decision.

Radio Madagascar reported on Friday that SOE scored the own goals against Adema as a protest after their coach Ratsimandresy Ratsarazaka lost his temper with the referee.

Adema’s players reportedly stood around looking bemused, doing nothing to stop the opposition from self-destructing.

Forget the most lopsided game in history, this might be the most impressive protest in history. You would think that after, say, the 112th goal they might have given up, but no, they continued on and made sure that they scored an own goal every 40 seconds or so. You can only hope that their keeper wasn’t getting paid based on his goals against average.

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Category: Africa, World Football