That’s the opinion of three French researchers, who describe something called the ‘spinning ball spiral’ in the New Journal of Physics.

When Brazilian left-back Roberto Carlos scored against France’s Fabien Barthez in 1997, his outrageous goal made headlines around the world. However, some critics claimed that it was a freak shot and that Carlos was lucky.

In their report, the physicists carried out experiments with plastic balls and a catapult. Their results show that, if a ball is fired hard enough and with enough spin, it will start to curve viciously in a spiral path after a certain distance. For different sports, the distance at which this starts to happen is not the same, but for football it is much closer to the 35 yards that Carlos took his shot from. Maybe he knows more about physics than Barthez!

Watch the video below to see Carlos' amazing free kick!