It often comes up in conversation: “What’s the best goal you’ve seen a Sunderland player score at the Stadium of Light or Roker Park?” Well, here’s mine: Claudio Marangoni in December 1979. Remember him? No thought not. I’ll be bold here and suggest he could’ve been for Sunderland what Granit Xhaka is today, but it wasn’t to be.
After the arrival of Osvaldo Ardiles in English football in 1978, South American footballers came into fashion. Some worked out (Ardiles), some didn’t (Pedro Verdy), and Marangoni
arrived at Sunderland in 1979 for a substantial fee in excess of £300,000.
At over six feet tall and strongly built, the twenty-five year-old arrived with around 200 games in Argentina to his name. A defensive midfielder by trade, Sunderland (typically) played him out of position on the left side of midfield, with the team at the time including the likes of Chris Turner in goal, Kevin Arnott and Shaun Elliott in midfield, and Gary Rowell up front.
Anyway, to that goal.
I was face on when Marangoni hit it from around twenty yards out. The shot was hit with pace and initially seemed to be going well over the bar, but it dipped then swerved to leave the goalkeeper rooted to the spot. That’s how I remember it, but maybe with the passage of time, my memory banks have embellished it a bit.
Which goal would I put in second place? Well, just to show how good the Marangoni goal was, it took a while (twenty years to be exact) until that dipping half-volley from Kevin Phillips vs Chelsea. What about the best away goal? For a long time, my choice was Alex Rae vs Charlton, only to be superceded by the Jack Clarke-finished team goal vs Reading.
Unfortunately, Marangoni only played twenty games, scoring three goals, before he headed back to Argentina. I remain convinced that he was just starting to get into his stride and could’ve been some player for us, but a number of factors — including a rumoured significant discount on the original fee — meant he headed home.
To support the “It wasn’t him, it was us” argument, Marangoni went on to have a successful career in Argentina and played for several of their top clubs. He also played nine games for the Argentinian national team in the 1983/1984 season, which isn’t a bad thing to include on your C.V.
