Football on Feb. 29: Who can claim to be soccer’s Mr. Leap Year?
Much like World Cups (for now at least), Feb. 29 only comes around once every four years and some choice football events have occurred on the rarest of all dates.
As you probably know, a Leap Year contains an additional day on top of the usual 365, which is added in at the end of February in order to maintain a level of synchronisation between the Gregorian calendar year and the Earth’s actual annual rotation around the Sun.
With 2024 being another Leap Year, and Leap Day itself upon us once again, here’s a timely look back at some of the most notable intercalary incidents that have taken place in football on Feb. 29, going back to the year that the Premier League and Champions League both began.
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1992
#OnThisDay in 1992: Eric Cantona scores his first goal in English football, the winner for #LUFC vs Luton. pic.twitter.com/bpQhTyrbkv
— A Funny Old Game (@sid_lambert) February 28, 2018
Eric Cantona scored his first goal in English football on Feb. 29, 1992, over a month after signing for Leeds United from French side Nimes. After coming off the bench against Luton Town, Cantona managed to open his account and lay on an assist in a 2-0 victory for his new side, who the surly France forward helped propel to the final English First Division title before the top tier rebranded and relaunched as the Premier League for the 1992-93 season.
2000
Ferran Torres is an apex predator. pic.twitter.com/rpEKgxVeFh
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) October 6, 2023
Ferran Torres was born on Feb. 29, 2000 which, assuming the Barcelona forward has only been able to celebrate his birthday every four years since, technically makes him seven years old today — surely the secret to his youthful…
