10 Funniest Comedy Fouls in Football: The Full Ranked List

A ball grazes a shin, and a grown man collapses like he’s been shot. That’s the whole joke, really, and football has been telling it for as long as the game has existed. Somewhere between the tackle and the replay, the gap between what happened and how someone reacted to it opens up, and that gap is where every classic comedy foul lives — from World Cup finals down to Sunday League pitches. Below are the 10 most famous examples, the ones that got replayed for years, fined by FIFA, or turned into internet punchlines.

The Ranking at a Glance

Rank	Incident	Match / Year	Why it’s on the list
1	Diego Maradona’s Hand of God	Argentina vs England, 1986 World Cup	Punched a goal past the keeper, then joked about divine assistance
2	Rivaldo’s face-clutch	Brazil vs Turkey, 2002 World Cup	Ball hit his thigh, he grabbed his face — Turkey’s Hakan Unsal saw red
3	Luis Suarez’s goal-line handball	Uruguay vs Ghana, 2010 World Cup	Deliberate double-handed save, sent off, celebrated the missed penalty
4	Thierry Henry’s “Hand of Gaul”	France vs Ireland, 2009 World Cup playoff	Blatant double touch set up the goal that ended Ireland’s campaign
5	Jurgen Klinsmann’s triple somersault	West Germany vs Argentina, 1990 World Cup final	Full-body tumble got Pedro Monzon sent off
6	Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi	France vs Italy, 2006 World Cup final	Ended his career on a red card in the final’s last minutes
7	Ashley Young’s “greatest dive of all time”	Man United vs Real Sociedad, 2013 Champions League	A shoulder brush turned into a full swan dive
8	Busquets’ peek-a-boo dive	Barcelona vs Inter Milan, 2010 Champions League	Checked through his own fingers to see if the ref bought it
9	Neymar’s 14 minutes on the ground	Brazil, 2018 World Cup	RTS clocked him rolling around for nearly a quarter-hour across four games
10	Luis Fabiano’s double handball	Brazil vs Ivory Coast, 2010 World Cup	Controlled the ball with two separate handballs before scoring

1. Diego Maradona’s Hand of God

Six minutes into the second half of the 1986 World Cup quarterfinal, Maradona rose alongside England keeper Peter Shilton and punched the ball into the net with his fist, disguised by the leap. Referee Ali Bin Nasser missed it, the goal stood, and Argentina went on to win 2-1 en route to the trophy. Maradona later told reporters the goal was scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God,” a line so brazen it turned outright cheating into football folklore. Four minutes later he scored the “Goal of the Century” in the same match, which somehow made the handball more famous, not less.

2. Rivaldo’s face-clutch vs Turkey

Turkey were down to ten men and needed a stoppage-time equalizer at the 2002 World Cup when Hakan Unsal, killing time at a corner, kicked the ball toward Rivaldo. It struck him on the thigh. Rivaldo went down clutching his face as if he’d been struck across the jaw, and Unsal was shown a second yellow and sent off. Replays made the mismatch obvious within minutes, and FIFA fined Rivaldo around $7,350 for simulation after the tournament — a rare instance of retroactive punishment for a dive, though the red card itself was never reversed.

3. Luis Suarez’s goal-line handball vs Ghana

With the 2010 World Cup quarterfinal tied in the final minute of extra time, Ghana’s Dominic Adiyiah headed toward an empty net and Suarez, standing on the line, punched it away with both hands. He was sent off immediately, Ghana were awarded the penalty that should have been a certain goal, and Asamoah Gyan struck the crossbar. Uruguay won the shootout that followed. Suarez openly celebrated on the touchline as Gyan’s penalty flew over, turning a professional foul into one of the most talked-about handballs the tournament has ever produced.

4. Thierry Henry’s “Hand of Gaul” vs Ireland

In the second leg of France’s 2009 World Cup playoff against the Republic of Ireland, Henry controlled a loose ball with two visible touches of his hand before crossing for William Gallas to head home the goal that sent France through. Referee Martin Hansson, positioned without a clear angle, allowed it to stand. Ireland’s FAI pushed for a replay that never happened, and the incident became one of the loudest arguments for goal-line and video review technology in the sport, predating VAR’s introduction by nearly a decade.

5. Jurgen Klinsmann’s triple somersault

In the closing stages of the 1990 World Cup final, West Germany’s Klinsmann went down under a challenge from Argentina’s Pedro Monzon with a tumble so theatrical — three visible rolls before he came to a stop — that it’s still shown as a template dive decades later. Monzon was sent off, becoming the first player ever red-carded in a World Cup final, and Argentina finished the match with nine men. West Germany won 1-0. Klinsmann’s reaction has outlived almost everything else from that final in football’s collective memory.

6. Zidane’s headbutt on Materazzi

Zinedine Zidane’s international career ended with a red card in the 110th minute of the 2006 World Cup final, after he turned and drove his head into Marco Materazzi’s chest following an exchange of words. Referee Horacio Elizondo, alerted by his fourth official after watching a replay on the sideline monitor, sent Zidane off. Italy won the final on penalties. The image of Zidane walking past the World Cup trophy after the sending-off remains one of the most reproduced in the tournament’s history, comedy and tragedy sitting in the same frame.

7. Ashley Young’s “greatest dive of all time”

During Manchester United’s 2013 Champions League last-16 tie against Real Sociedad, Young ran into the box, felt the lightest graze from defender Markel Bergara, and launched himself into a full airborne collapse that landed him a penalty. Robin van Persie missed it, which only added to the comedy, but the dive itself picked up a lasting nickname across British football media — “the greatest dive of all time” — for how wildly it outran the actual contact.

8. Busquets’ peek-a-boo dive vs Inter Milan

In the 2010 Champions League semifinal, Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets went down clutching his face after the faintest brush from Inter’s Thiago Motta, who was shown a second yellow and sent off. A broadcast camera caught Busquets, still lying on the turf, briefly parting his fingers to check whether the referee had bought the reaction. The clip became a staple of “worst dives” compilations for exactly that reason — it’s the rare piece of footage that shows the calculation happening in real time.

9. Neymar’s 14 minutes on the ground

At the 2018 World Cup, Swiss broadcaster RTS tracked how long Neymar spent down on the pitch across Brazil’s group and knockout matches and clocked it at nearly 14 minutes over four games, including more than five minutes in a single match against Mexico. The number went viral instantly, turning into memes, a widely shared KFC advert parody, and a running joke that followed Neymar through the rest of the tournament regardless of how legitimate any individual foul actually was.

10. Luis Fabiano’s double handball vs Ivory Coast

Brazil’s Luis Fabiano scored in the 2010 World Cup group match against Ivory Coast after controlling a high ball with one handball, then a second, before finishing past the goalkeeper. Referee Stephane Lannoy, positioned behind the play, missed both touches, and Ivory Coast’s protests went nowhere. It’s a quieter entry than Henry’s or Suarez’s, but the sheer number of uncalled handballs packed into one goal is what earns it a spot on this list.

How We Ranked Them

This list weighs three things: how widely each incident was seen and replayed, what it actually changed in the match or tournament, and how large the gap was between the real contact and the reaction to it. World Cup finals and knockout matches sit above group-stage and club incidents for that reason, and moments with a concrete consequence — a red card, a disallowed goal, a trophy on the line — rank above ones that were funny but forgotten by full time. For the rules that govern all of this, see our guide to football and soccer coverage; for why players do it in the first place, read why do soccer players flop; and for the officials trying to catch them in the act, see our ranking of the best football referees of all time.