The 10th anniversary of the Premier League’s most underrated goal

October 2013 was a simpler time. Nobody had ever heard of Brexit, or the Famileigh, or Gianni Infantino [unless you were a Uefa tombola nerd – Football Daily Ed]. As a society, we didn’t worry about bedbugs or video assistant referees. Football Daily lived freely, could drink as much Tin as wanted without fear of recrimination from any smaller Football Dailies that were pattering around the place, looking for the remote. If we wanted to watch Crystal Palace v Fulham on a school night, then that’s what happened.

And that’s exactly what did happen, exactly a decade ago this week, as this tea-timely email enjoyed yet another fabulous TV dinner in front of the box, as one of the Premier League’s most outrageous volleys was beamed into its living room, courtesy of Fulham’s Pajtim Kasami. This was a golden era of Barclays. After Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement a few months earlier, it felt like anything was possible. Michu had morphed into a Spanish Rivaldo down in south Wales, Stoke City were on course for a top-half finish and Martin Jol – the maverick – had paired Darren Bent up top with Dimitar Berbatov for Fulham.

But despite a late Philippe Senderos scissor kick sealing a 4-1 win for the Cottagers, the night belonged to Kasami and his wonder strike: a goal so precise and fluid that one could pour it into a bronze cast, allow it to set and erect it as a statue outside the away end at Selhurst Park; a goal so previously underrated (it didn’t even win Match of the Day’s Goal of the Month) until a few years ago, when the streets remembered that they had forgotten about the strike, and decided that they would – from that day forward – never forget again.

Only Kasami knows how the goal came to pass. The Swiss international was