• Ask Steven

Doubles for defenders?

Richard Jolly
September 30, 2013
Fernando Hierro collected plenty of goals for Real Madrid © PA Photos
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Are there any defenders (centre-backs) who have scored double digits in any season (league goals)? I once read that Marco 'The Matrix' Materazzi once scored 16 league goals in a season, Henry from Nigeria asked.

There are. Steve Bruce scored 19 times for Manchester United in the 1990-91 season, 13 of them in the old Division One. Materazzi's best is 12 league goals in a Serie A campaign, which he achieved for Perugia in 2000-01, and he twice got double figures.

Fernando Hierro struck 26 times (21 in La Liga) in 1991-92 and followed that up by scoring 18 goals (13 of them in the league) in 1992-93. However, the complication here is that, while he spent the majority of his Real Madrid career at the back, he was often used in midfield. In Hierro's most prolific season, Ronald Koeman also chipped in with 16 for Barcelona. Both were set-piece specialists and Koeman, who scored more than 200 goals for his club and country in a career largely spent at the back, is regarded as the most prolific defender ever.

The 1978 World Cup winner Daniel Passarella struck 24 times in the Argentine league in 1976 - the most by a defender in a single season I am aware of. He also reached double figures in a Serie A season during his time at Fiorentina.

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