Boli at Fulham 98

One of the most fun seasons I’ve had as a supporter, that team were great to watch at times

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We certainly had some cracking cup runs!!

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Agree Peron is without doubt the most talented and exciting player I’ve ever seen play for Walsall. At the time I used to take my young nephew so sat in the family stand so saw him up close. Got you off your seat every time he got the ball and quietly literally, regularly left their players sitting on their arsenal going “where did he go”. The only thing missing from his game was goals otherwise he’d have been playing top flight. Remember the goal he scored hit the crossbar, bounced on the goal line and spun in, que the biggest cheer of the season. Absolutely awesome player, you thought something could happen here everytime he touched the ball.

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Totally agree Locky, without a doubt the best player I have ever seen in a Walsall shirt.

Sounds a bit like the only goal from Makris.
It would be interesting if anyone has got the videos to compare them?

All that fuss at the weekend over the Garnacho goal at Goodison, the Boli effort was better. :grin:
And better than either was the Buckley overhead at The Molineux for Blues. I’ve only seen it once as I don’t think it was on the Tele, but it was a goal of rare beauty.
Good football doesn’t only happen in the Prem.

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The thing about the goals at Everton and Rooney, Bale, Ronaldo etc. they are all stood still when the ball comes to them, to launch in to their overhead kicks.
With Boli, he was running full pelt to be on the end of Peron’s excellent cross, who was also running at full pelt down the wing.
No comparison in my mind, which one was the best.

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And if I recall he was still running backwards at the end when he actually did the overhead kick😲

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That goal is one of those memories burnt into my Walsall brain box. Insane technique. Such a bizarre season, we were amazing at times and the cup nights were amazing against Forest, the blades and Peterborough.

Looking back though Peron was the jewel for me , fantastic player and probably one of my favourites still to this day. Funny I remember really worrying about the following season after how it ended under Sorensen, but then the magic really kicked in!

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Time to dig it out again. Pity that the quality of video definition back then didn’t match the quality of the goal.

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Thanks for that, great memory that night. Despite the fact that I was in Reading and watched that on my own in the back bar of the Red Lion on S’hampton St, one guy put his head round the door shrugged and left, Everyone else was in the front bar with whatever other game was on. It was very much a Rangers pub though, otherwise Charlie my Celtic mate would’ve come along.

Boli was top scorer in the French top flight just three years before joining us. Looking forward to Mpabbe arriving in 2026!

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Crazy when you look back at it with some of the players we signed in those days.

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Peron is still by far the most technically gifted player I’ve ever seen in a Walsall shirt. Regularly left the opposition sitting on their arse wondering where the hell he and the ball had gone.

Whenever he got the ball everyone was off their seats because they knew something was likely to happened.

My favourite player to watch of all time.

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I actually think that all the copies that exist of this goal on the net originate from my VHS video copy that I digitised back in the day. There weren’t many people who were able to do that back then!

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This was the weekend Diana died I think.

How I wish we could still get players in our club with half the skill he had.

Sounds a bit similar to the one Boro had in the prem in that era, relegated with Ravaneilli, Juninho and Emerson but reached both cup finals so it’s still fondly remembered for putting them on the map.

Didn’t actually realise until reading this thread got to the area final of EFL cup (think it was called Auto windscreens back then) and lost, thought it was just Millwall from those times the following season and you get the feeling one of Boli or Peron would’ve been the match winner at Wembley so that would’ve been the greatest season in the modern era.

Back in the mid to late 90s, the foreign route was explored by very few clubs. I also remember around that time Villa signing Milosevic and getting derided for just signing him off video tapes. Most of the foreign players in premier league were Scandinavian and it was basically “Carlos Kickaball” attitude.

Then Arsenal signed Bergkamp and Chelsea signed Zola who were massive successes and then all clubs started seriously looking at the route with all those pros and cons.

Took longer to filter down to the lower leagues so imo a club like Walsall were a real pioneer to get in likes of Peron and Boli so eventually bigger clubs with much bigger budgets would folllow.

Taylor seems to get stick for being part of the Bonser crew but he clearly had some very good contacts as DOF and there were real gems discovered under his watch.

Leitao was an amazing pick up and Junior would’ve been similar if he had Leitao’s loyalty. He’d played a bit in europe but was back in Brazil when he came over.

Matias was already in this country with Maccelsfield and Tranmere but I imagine he tipped off the club about Aranalde. Zigor was a first choice for a La Liga club in the 96-97 season so that was a ridiculous signing for a newly promoted championship club and he soon showed that quality.

It was just fun times that whole 97-2004 era before the carnage that followed under Merson. Just shows how dull the last 7 years have been and I can’t see it improving anytime soon even to more realistic heights such as bottom half league 1.

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