An hour after the final whistle blew to give Sunderland a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough, Chris Rigg returned to the pitch and sealed the local derby with a piece of impromptu magic, scoring a backheel from nowhere that stunned the stadium and captured the attention of a nationwide crowd.
While the nets have been removed and Sunderland's groundskeepers are noisily mowing the grass behind Rigg, the boy who turned 17 in June has agreed to reminisce about his glorious moments with Rigg. Athletic.
He seemed a bit surprised when he told us, but these kinds of winners are dreams and instincts, not plans.
The 24th minute goal was scored by Sunderland goalkeeper Anthony Paterson, whose long pass found Romain Mandl on the Sunderland left wing with Rigg preparing to move forward in the centre circle.
“I guess I just go with the flow,” he said when asked what he was thinking at this point. “Because I know when Pat gets the ball, he's going to want to shoot it. And sometimes you just get lucky, and I got lucky. I just go with the flow.”
The putt was Sunderland's left-footed right winger Patrick Roberts, who was found by Mandl. Roberts stole the ball, ran towards the defence and, just as Rigg had predicted, fired home.
The ball is driven low into the Boro defence, so expectations are moderate, but Rigg is still on the move.
George Edmundson stretched out his leg to block the shot and deflected the ball back towards the goal. Goalkeeper Seny Dieng lost his footing and fell to the ground. The ball was loose.
Next, Rigg was the first to touch the ball. How was his first touch?
He smiled at the incompletion, then swiveled his feet to show how he tried to regain control. “I took the ball away from the keeper,” Rigg said of his first touch. “It landed right in front of the keeper so I had to take it away from him. I thought, 'Oh no, I missed it too far.'”
And what happened after that? “I had no choice but to backheel it.”
Not only that, the ball was heading towards the goal line, the angle was tight and it looked like Rigg could keep it in play, but then he backheeled on the run, something few would ever think of, much less do, especially when playing against men in front of 43,000 people, having only turned 17 three months earlier.
Take a bow, Chris Rigg! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/jwCquWElwG
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) September 21, 2024
17-year-old Chris Rigg from Sunderland scores a beautiful backheel goal 😱 pic.twitter.com/O1tI5cdIhP
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 21, 2024
“I scored and then I was like, 'I'm so excited after that,'” he says, watching footage of his teammates pounce on him.
“How cool? How cool?” exclaimed the Sky Sports commentator.
When asked if he'd ever done anything like that in training, Rigg laughed and said, “No, I've never done that. No, I'm not that good at it in training.”
Another angle of Riggy's backheel… why not? 🎬🤩 pic.twitter.com/xYuYhC1iUL
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) September 22, 2024
Self-deprecation will take him a long way, as will confidence. Rigg talks about joining Sunderland as a five-year-old and playing on the pitch for the first time with the under-nines as half-time “entertainment”. “I couldn't believe it, I think I was a lot more nervous then.
“It's absolutely amazing. It's half empty at half-time but it's a boyhood dream to play in front of fans in the stadium.”
Rigg shouts in celebration after the magical moment (Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
He made his senior debut at the Stadium of Light last January aged 15 and then appeared in the FA Youth Cup. He says he gets nervous but doesn't show it, and describes his style as follows: “I would say I'm a traditional midfielder. I love attacking and defending. I can do both. I can add to that. And, as you can see, I like to tackle too. I'm kind of a box-to-box midfielder.”
When asked about midfielders he admires – and he suddenly realises that the Lig is so young that they might still be playing – sure enough, the first name he mentions is “Modric”, and “I also watch videos of Zidane, Lampard and Gerrard”.
And there were flashes of self-determination on the field: “I don't want to be Steven Gerrard, I want to be Chris Rigg, but that's the type of player I am.”
He is careful in his tone. It is up to the rest of us to balance the legitimate expectations of the league with the harsh realities of professional football. His youth must be emphasised: he will be just 17 when the season ends.
Riggs' name is most often mentioned in a rapidly improving youth squad with scouts from across Europe now clamoring for a seat at the Stadium of Light. Saturday's squad, with an average age of 23.1, is coming off its fifth win from six Championship games under new manager Regis Le Bris this summer.
Going deeper
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Autumn is well underway on Wearside and excitement is building. Rigg, who signed his first professional contract in July, is the teenage flag-bearer for the team who are second in the league and next up for the match is away to Watford.
“I don't think age is an issue,” Le Bris said. “You can be 17 and have a lot of maturity, and 30 and not. It depends on the personality and the player.”
Le Brie's young team won five of their first six games (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
“Chris Rigg is a good symbol of what we want to build as a team and as a club. He still wants to develop, he still wants to understand the game and he's got the personality and temperament to play in any situation and I like that.”
But Le Brie is not making any grand predictions about where Rigg's career will go, and when asked if the England Under-18 captain could win caps in the future, the Frenchman chuckled.
“I hope so,” he said. “The key is consistency. You can play one, two, three, four, five games, but the reality at a high level is playing an entire season or even multiple seasons. He still has a lot to grow on, but his attitude is very intriguing.”
Take one step at a time or backheel.
(Photo above: Rigg twists and scores with a backheel. Ian Horrocks/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
