It was a cold afternoon in the Netherlands in 2019. The stadium was not even full, but something happened that would make football history and inspire memes for years.
A local league match between Harkemase Boys and HSV Hoek was going smoothly until the sixty-sixth minute. The referee, Maurits de Bruijn, was standing in the middle of the play when the ball suddenly deflected off a player, hit his leg, and rolled straight into the goal.
For a few seconds, nobody moved. The crowd laughed nervously. The players looked at the referee, waiting for him to react. But by the rules at that time, the goal had to count if the ball touched the referee and went in.
So yes, the referee had scored.
The home team celebrated half-jokingly, and de Bruijn stood there smiling, trying to stay professional while realizing he had just changed the course of the match. Later he joked, “I guess I can finally say I scored in a professional game.”
The incident went so viral that FIFA updated the rulebook soon after. The new rule now states that if the ball touches a match official and goes into the goal, play must be stopped and restarted with a dropped ball.
Maurits de Bruijn became a small but unforgettable part of football history. Sometimes in sports, even when you are not meant to play, destiny still finds a way to put your name on the scoreboard.