He’s the answer to a trivia question that will live on for years to come – who was the goalkeeper that Sergio Aguero fired his famous title-winning goal past when Manchester City sealed their first-ever Premier League title in 2012?
City fans will have seen that goal countless times and know that it was QPR stopper Paddy Kenny who has a place in football folklore for being on the wrong end of one of the most iconic moments in modern-day football.
Aguero’s goal saw City complete a fairytale turnaround in the final match of the 2011/12 campaign after the entered stoppage time at the Etihad trailing to a QPR side that were fighting relegation.
Edin Dzeko hit an equaliser, before Aguero scored past Kenny to see City crowned champions of England for the first time in 44 years.
Paddy Kenny reflects on Sergio Aguero moment
Kenny enjoyed a 20-year career in English football, beginning at Bradford Park Avenue, but is the Aguero goal that has gone down as his most famous moment on a football pitch.
And it’s one that he is constantly reminded of, with one criticism of his performance that day particularly irking him.
“Even to this day I still have people saying to me: “Oh, you should never have got beaten there at your near post.”,” he wrote in his autobiography The Gloves Are Off.
- READ MORE: Who is Sergio Aguero? Step inside the life of the Premier League icon with 260 Man City goals
“I’m not having that for one minute. Aguero was about seven or eight yards out – and have you seen how hard he hit that ball? It was past me before I even had a chance. If it was five yards off the touchline, I would understand and, if I am being ultra-critical of myself, I probably could have taken another half-step to my left.
“Even then I’m not saying I would have saved it! I would never have got down quick enough to get my hand to it. It would have been a foot, if anything. But then the most famous goal in football history wouldn’t have been scored and I wouldn’t see it on the television every so often!”
Man City comeback was a ‘sliding doors moment’
Like countless other fans – especially those at Manchester United – Kenny admits he wonders what would have happened if he had saved the Argentine’s shot.
“It was like a sliding-doors moment,” he added. “Man United would have won the title that year, and who knows what would have happened to City?”
| Competition | Times won since 2012 |
| Premier League | 7 |
| FA Cup | 2 |
| League Cup | 6 |
| Champions League | 1 |
| Club World Cup | 1 |
Since then, City have added seven more Premier League titles to their trophy cabinet, with the 2012 victory the start of a period of domination at the Etihad.
While rivals United did manage to wrestle the title back the following season, it proved to be Sir Alex Ferguson’s swansong and the Red Devils currently sit 13th in the Premier League table, with 11 seasons having elapsed since their last title win.
Given the level of City’s spending over the past 15 years, a period of sustained domination was always a possibility, but every new era needs a signature moment to usher it in, and Kenny is smart enough to realise the part he played in City’s rise.
