Malikzo, a football content creator popular in East Africa has posted a viral clip that has got football fans arguing about the rules of the game. In the clip posted to his Instagram handle, he attempts and succeeds at a stylish penalty kick to the delight of his young fans.
His spot-kick technique sees him attempt a rabona with his right foot towards the bottom left corner of the makeshift goalpost, only to hook it with his left and steer it towards the right, totally deceiving the goalkeeper.
It was an aesthetically pleasing penalty but his followers saw it differently.
Faux rabona spotkick gets millions of views
Malikzo (real name Abdimalik, last name unknown) is a popular Kenyan content creator and freestyler. His videos are usually of him participating in local football competitions in his community playground, having a kickabout with friends, showing his freestyle skills, comedic skits with a football theme, and video blogging of his life.
With 194.5k followers on his TiTok account and 68.5k followers on Instagram, Malikzo tends to go viral often. He amasses between 500 to 10,000 views on average on his Instagram while he amasses between 10,000 to 25,000 views on his TikTok.
The clip of his spot-kick is his most viral video, amassing more than 40 million views on both Instagram (49.3 million) and TikTok (40.9 million). On Instagram, the video garnered 1.4 million likes and on TikTok, 1.9 million likes.
There is more to him than his social-media content though as Malikzo actually plays for a local club in Wajir town in Kenya – Al Hayat, which is one of the most popular clubs in the region.
Most of his content is for entertainment and so was the viral spot-kick. Like most viral videos, his comments were a mix of fans who came with think pieces and commentaries on how he broke the rules of football with the kick and praise for his technique, with some of the praise singers wishing that they could see it in a real match.
He also celebrated by kicking the goalpost which appeared to hurt the goalkeeper and he was criticised for doing that in the comments. Malikzo’s spot-kick technique is one of many that has been seen in freestyle videos and in official games.
Comments on Malikzo’s spot-kick
One comment appreciating the beauty of the technique but making reference to football rules, read, “Unfortunately a penalty is a one-touch hit. That would have been epic.”
There is some controversy as to the definition of a one-touch hit, considering the ball did not exactly touch the ground.
A reply to the initial comment above reads, “If I could remember, a one-touch hit stops when the ball hits the ground, which the ball never did, right… So I think you're wrong here too.”
Has something like this happened before in football history? Maybe not exactly but another fan brought up the Messi-Suarez penalty in 2016 as an argument for why the penalty could work in a real game. The debate remains open but it can be inferred that the laws surrounding penalty kicks remain tricky for fans.
On TikTok, most of the comments made fun of Malikzo’s two-touch penalty. One particularly sarcastic comment reads, “I just knew that penalty can be double touch.”
Ronaldo might be one of the greatest in the game but perhaps Malikzo is the GOAT of penaltys?
Another reads, “Even Ronaldo [doesn’t] know this technique.”
Could it be a while before we see Malikzo’s penalty in an official game? Time will tell.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 months ago
