The goalkeeper???s anxiety at the penalty kick

Peter Handke, Austrian Nobel prize winning writer, has described the goalkeeper’s dilemma at a penalty kick, to perfection, in his short novel from 1970, Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, or The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (also adapted as a movie in 1972, by Wim Wenders).

The protagonist, Joseph Bloch, former goalkeeper and now a murderer on the run, is watching a football game, from the sidelines, in the company of a traveling salesman.

A penalty kick was called. All the spectators rushed behind the goal.

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Tags: kick penalty