Top 5 funniest air-kicks of all time

Air-kicks, mis-kicks, no contact kicks – Call them what you want, but they still remain the most humiliating thing for a footballer on the field.

There is no worse feeling in the world for a professional footballer than lining up to hit a shot with all the power in the world, only to see your foot miss the ball completely and kick air.

And if you think air-kicking is solely limited to not-so-good footballers in the lower leagues, well then you are in for a surprise. Because it happens to the best of them too…

a) Robin van Persie

Manchester United fans love him, and Arsenal fans love to hate him. Regardless of your feelings for the Dutchman, there is no doubt that he is one of the best in the world at what he does.

But before van Persie was a household name because of his penchant for scoring goals all the time, he was much more famous, or infamous in this case, for this:

Let’s take a moment and look at that again. It’s not the air-kick that’s the most hilarious part here – sure, for someone whose entire life revolves around kicking a ball, mistakes are bound to happen overtime.

But it’s the way that he completely swivels in mid-air and lands (really hard) on his backside. Ouch!

As if missing the shot completely wasn’t bad enough, van Persie also had to contend with a bruised backside.

b) Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard – one of the greatest long-range goalscorers that football has ever seen. If you ever wanted someone to know how great a player Gerrard is, you simply had to show them videos of the kind of insane goals that Gerrard has scored since he started out.

But if you are going to show someone videos of Gerrard, make sure it isn’t the gif below:

It’s all going smoothly till he traps the ball and lets it bounce. Then things get out of control very quickly.

A glorious air-kick, followed by the humiliation of losing your balance and falling on the floor as the opponent calmly takes the ball away. Like I said before, even the best have had their bad moments.

3) Bryan Gunn

Most footballers can get away with air-kicks, and only have to contend with the humiliation of missing the ball and the fans getting on their back.

But if you are a goalkeeper, an air-kick is the worst thing that you can do, especially if you are simply trying to clear the ball away.

I actually have no pity for the goalkeeper. With a god-awful jersey like that, you deserve to have bad things happen to you.

4) Paul Robinson

When Gary Neville passed the ball back to his keeper, little did he know that he would be awarded an assist for an own goal that remains one of the best (or worst, if you are an England fan) ever.

Robinson sees the ball. Robinson lines up to hit the ball. Robinson misses the ball. The ball ends up in the net. Robinson stands there, shell shocked and humiliated. England are the laughing stock of football, for a while.

5) Jamal Thiare

Question - What’s worse than missing your kick completely and making a fool out of yourself?

Answer - Missing your kick from 5 yards while you are facing an empty net.

Take a bow, Mr Jamal Thiare.

Even his teammates are laughing instead of feeling sorry for him. That’s how bad it was!

Notable mention

Okay, so this isn’t strictly professional football. Hell, it’s not even football. It seems to be a kid in diapers trying his hardest to kick what appears to be a miniature rugby ball.

Say what you want about him, the kid understands how important it is to ready yourself for a kick.

A lot of preparation went in to this air-kick, and for that it deserves a mention.

P.S: It’s a long gif, do watch it fully!