100 goals for Rogério Ceni (Luiz Pires/VIPCOMM)

São Paulo goalkeeper (and legend) Rogério Ceni scored his 100^th goal in professional football yesterday. And he scored it in the perfect way: in a derby match against local rivals Corinthians. It’s quite an amazing achievement and the player is a true São Paulo and general football legend. The 100 goals are split between 44 penalties and 56 free kicks.

Dagoberto opened the scoring for São Paulo and was later sent off. Rogério Ceni put São Paulo two up before Dentinho pulled one back for Corinthians. But they had two players sent off themselves (Alessandro and Dentinho) and couldn’t find the equaliser.

Well done Rogerio Ceni. You are the man! I’m not entirely convinced about São Paulo’s strikers or midfielders though if you take all the free kicks and penalties but you’ve been at the club your whole life and I suppose even if São Paulo signed Ronaldinho, you’d still be taking them. You’ve earned that right.

Personally, I always think it’s an unnecessary risk to send the keeper up for free kicks and penalties. I must admit that I’ve never seen anybody score (or get close to scoring) against São Paulo from a counter attack after a Ceni free kick or penalty miss. But, I’ve heard it happened once.

FYI, other than being a free kick taker, Rogério Ceni is not a bad keeper either. He’s made 17 appearances for Brazil according to that wonderfully reliable source called Wikipedia. Sounds about right to me though – he was competing with the likes of Julio César, Dida, Marcos. He’s now 38 years old and has spent his whole career at São Paulo.

See Rogério Ceni’s milestone free kick below: