The question of whether any player has ever scored with the very first touch of their professional career has resurfaced following a standout performance by Huddersfield teenager Jamie Spencer. Spencer, aged 17, made his competitive first-team debut as a substitute for Doncaster Rovers on September 9 in the EFL Trophy. He entered the match in the 66th minute and remarkably scored with his second touch—using the first to control the ball and the second to finish.
Richard Askham posed the query to The Guardian’s Knowledge team, asking if anyone has ever surpassed this feat by scoring on their very first touch, which would be the only way to improve upon Spencer’s achievement.
While this topic was partially explored in 2021 regarding players scoring on their first touch for new clubs, the current inquiry narrows its focus to the first touch of a player’s entire professional career. Several historical examples stand out, including Jack Aitchison, who scored on his debut for Celtic in 2016, and Yan Dhanda, who found the net for Swansea City against Sheffield United in 2018.
Other notable instances include Matt Hatch for the Central Coast Mariners in 2021, Maheta Molango—now chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association—who scored for Brighton against Reading in August 2004, and England’s one-cap international Michael Ricketts, who scored for Walsall against Brighton in 1996. These cases highlight that while rare, scoring on one’s debut first touch is a feat that has been achieved at various levels of the professional game.
I remember Yan Dhanda’s goal vividly. It felt even more spontaneous than some of these other examples in the article.
Does counting the throw-in or pass they receive before touching it for the first time actually matter? Seems like semantics to me.
Jamie Spencer nearly did it! That second touch finish was absolutely brilliant for a 17-year-old on debut.