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Skydiver Gets Yellow Card After Landing in the Middle of Polish Soccer Game

In Wednesday’s Hot Clicks: an airborne intruder at a soccer game, Rudy Gobert’s clutch defense and more.

Dan Gartland

Skydiver Gets Yellow Card After Landing in the Middle of Polish Soccer Game
Skydiver Gets Yellow Card After Landing in the Middle of Polish Soccer Game /

Just a yellow? 

This isn’t the kind of dive you’ll usually see on a soccer field.

A game in Poland’s fifth tier on Sunday between the Olimpia Elbląg reserve team and PISA Primavera Barczewo was interrupted by a skydiver landing in the midfield circle right in the middle of play.

Everyone on the ground handled the bizarre situation pretty calmly. The players scurried out of the way of the airborne pitch invader, the announcer let out a hearty chuckle and the referee responded by showing the parachutist a yellow card.

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That is some impeccable comedic timing by the ref. He just walks up to the skydiver like it’s the most normal thing in the world and doesn’t bat an eye while showing him the yellow. Not a red. Let’s not overreact to the person falling out of the sky and into the middle of a soccer game. That’s only worth a warning.

What makes the incident even better is that the skydiver took a first-person video of their descent into the park. It shows plenty of open green space around the soccer field, but whether they didn’t think they could make it to the meadow in the distance or they just felt like dropping in on an amateur sporting event, they ended up right in the center of the pitch. The video also features an outstanding reaction from one of the players in yellow, who doesn’t realize there’s someone dropping in from above until the very last moment.

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This isn’t the first time someone has dropped in from the sky to interrupt a sporting event. (It’s happened in England, Italy and, most famously, during a 1993 Evander Holyfield fight.) Even though it was in a game at the bottom of the Polish soccer pyramid, the ref’s yellow card makes this incident one of the best of its genre. 

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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