Samuel Chukwueze’s cartoon golazo seals his place as Villarreal’s new hero

H is boots are on fire, and not for the first time. When Samuel Chimerenka Chukwueze was a boy growing up in Umahia, southeast Nigeria, all he wanted to do was play football but his mum had other ideas. The way he recalls it, Sarah was so determined for him to become a doctor, and for sport not to get in the way of school work, that one time he came home to find that she had burned all his kit. That day, he cried; on Saturday, he laughed his head off, live on TV. “It’s a mad golazo, isn’t it?” he said, and then he cracked up.

It certainly is, Samu. Ten minutes remained at the Santiago Bernabéu when he received the ball on the right one last time. Before him, poor Nacho Fernández, whose insides still hadn’t straightened out, unravelling the knots the Nigerian spent the evening tying them in, must have felt his heart sink. Chukwueze rolled the ball under his studs, headed for him, neatly evaded Eduardo Camavinga and gave it to Álex Baena, which might have been a relief to Real Madrid, except Chukwueze got it straight back and then broke them again. For good this time.

Dashing across goal, leaving Nacho on the floor and Thibaut Courtois too, the Villarreal winger sent a rocket flying into the far corner. Running to the touchline, Chukwueze raised his fingers to his head, near his ears. If he was wondering what they were saying, the answer was mostly: bloody hell! On the other touchline, the coach Quique Setién raised his arms. “I don’t know if some Madrid fans might have even celebrated,” he said, which was optimistic, but plenty clapped. It was a shot from a cartoon, all ka-pows and ka-booms, flames from his boots and vapour from the ball: vooosh.

It was also the winner. Twice Villarreal had been behind, twice they had