On June 3rd, 1997, Roberto Carlos stunned the world with one of the most spectacular free-kicks the game has ever witnessed which still baffles the boffins to this day.
It’s Brazil versus France in the pre-1998 World Cup warm-up competition, LeTournoi, there are 21 minutes on the clock, Brazil have been awarded a free-kick 40 yards from goal, and up steps Roberto Carlos…
The muscular fullback was already renowned for his ball-striking ability, particularly from dead-ball situations, but what followed was one of the most iconic moments in world football which appeared to defy the laws of both physics and gravity.
After a run-up that a fast bowler would have been proud of, Roberto Carlos struck the ball with the outside of his left boot, and as far as goalkeeper Fabian Barthez and everyone else in the Stade de Gerland was concerned, his effort was heading harmlessly wide.
But after swerving around the French wall, the ball took on a life of its own, changing direction at the last second and curling goalwards and into the net, kissing the post on its way.
The goal was quickly branded as a freak, especially after the Real Madrid great hammered a number of subsequent efforts into the wall in the years that followed, though he clearly knew what he was doing – even if nobody else did.
"I always struck set pieces on the valve because that's the hardest part of the ball and you get more power," the defender told FourFourTwo in 2015, as he revealed the secrets of his technique.
"I always kicked the ball from its bottom-left to the top-right, which helped it swerve," he said on his connection.
"I'll always remember the advertising behind the goal. I was aiming for the 'A' in La Poste, but when I hit the shot it was miles away from that - going towards a different advert!
"The ball boy was diving out of the way of the shot, too. He should have had more confidence in me!"
The astonishing strike baffled not just football fans but scientists too, with a study of the goal carried out by four French physicists which was published in the New Journal of Physics in 2010.
"It all comes down to the fact that, when a sphere spins, its trajectory is a spiral," was the official explanation.
"Usually, gravity and the relatively short distance the ball travels covers up this spiral trajectory, but Carlos was 115 feet away and kicked the ball hard enough to reveal its true spiral-like path.”
Meanwhile, Professor Luis Fernando Fontanari of the University of Sao Paulo claimed: "Although physics explain perfectly the ball's trajectory, the conditions in that moment - such as the power of the kick, the point of impact of Roberto Carlos's foot on the ball, and the distance to the goal - were so rare that we can call that a miracle.”
At the time of that famous goal, the left-back was in his second season for Real Madrid, having moved to Spain after a short term at Inter Milan, who purchased the youngster from Brazilian champions Palmeiras for $8 million.
In Madrid, he would win four La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues, becoming an idol and a legend at the Santiago Bernabéu and he is still an international ambassador for Los Merengues.
He also cemented his place as Brazil's starting left-back in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 World Cups - winning the trophy in South Korea/Japan in 2002 having been a runner-up in France four years earlier.
Roberto Carlos finally hung up his boots in 2015, but in the 18 years that passed between that famous free-kick against France and his retirement, he never tried to replicate that famous moment - claiming he knew it was all but impossible.
"I never tried to kick like that again, because I know I would never have scored," he later told ESPN. "There are lots of good kickers nowadays. It might take some time, but someday someone will score a similar goal. But I was the first."
