One of the finest goals in Premier League history, scored by one of the competition’s finest players, turns 30 today — but what does the goalkeeper at the other end remember about that famous strike from the halfway line?

Thirty years ago today, Premier League champions Manchester United began the defence of their title against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park. The match had unfolded much as expected: a strengthened Manchester United side, with the ‘Class of ’92’ now established and growing in confidence, faced regular mid-table outfit Wimbledon. It was Sir Alex Ferguson against Joe Kinnear. Eric Cantona got on the scoresheet with a fine effort from the edge of the box, before Denis Irwin made it 2-0. As the game moved towards its end, young David Beckham noticed Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan off his line and drew back his now-famous right foot.

The image of Beckham leaning back, poised to whip a right-footed pass or shot, had not yet become fixed in the minds of English football supporters, and what he produced at Selhurst Park perfectly foreshadowed the kind of moments that would define his career later on. The poster boy, still around six months away from meeting his future wife Victoria Adams, produced an audacious effort from the halfway line to complete a 3-0 win and take centre stage on the opening day, 17th August 1996.

“It was just a normal game,” Wimbledon goalkeeper Neil Sullivan explained 30 years later, almost like someone revisiting the opening moments of a shocking documentary about his own misfortune.

“We were 2-0 down going into the last couple of minutes of the game. He [Beckham] hit it, and it kind of moved in the air quite a lot. I didn’t quite change my feet around properly and, as soon as he hits it, you think, ‘That’s going to be close’.

“When it went in, I was kind of hanging onto the net, looking up, and all the Man United fans were behind the goal. I was getting pelters from the stands. I just kind of had a little smile and a chuckle to myself, and that was it, really.

“Then you don’t really think much of it. You wake up the next day — obviously no social media back then, no nothing. You pick up a newspaper, and it’s all over the back pages. You think, ‘Wow, that’s quite special’. And you’re kind of inadvertently a part of Premier League history.

The goal sent Beckham, who had not yet made his senior England debut, into immediate superstardom. Before that afternoon, Beckham was regarded as a promising talent in Manchester United’s first team. The instant the ball hit the net, he changed overnight from an emerging prospect into a household name.

“My favourite goal has to be the one against Wimbledon,” Beckham said years later. “Everybody talks about it, everybody knows about it.”

The goal was not confined to the back pages of newspapers; it also made the front pages, where plenty of Beckham stories would remain in the years that followed. It was the moment he first gripped the public imagination beyond football, laying the foundation for brand Becks to become a global pop-culture figure, an advertising force, and the defining celebrity-athlete of the late 1990s and 2000s.

The strike also arrived during a period of huge growth and rebranding for the Premier League, fuelled by Sky Sports’ coverage. Beckham’s goal was cinematic, bold and breathtaking — exactly the sort of highlight-reel moment for a league presenting itself as the most entertaining in the world.

It was the age of the montage, and Beckham’s goal featured in countless ones. Spare a thought for Neil Sullivan the next time you watch it.