{"id":107754,"date":"2025-08-31T01:04:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107754\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T01:04:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:04:09","slug":"nestory-irankunda-scores-free-kick-goal-in-watfords-draw-vs-southampton-video-social-media-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107754\/","title":{"rendered":"Nestory Irankunda scores free kick goal in Watford’s draw vs Southampton; video, social media reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nestory Irankunda<\/a> has continued to turn heads overseas, this time scoring an incredible free kick to save points for Watford in their 2-2 draw against Southampton.<\/p>\n

The talented Australian teenager, who made his debut for the Socceroos last year, belted home an “outrageous” equaliser on Sunday morning (AEST) for his new club.<\/p>\n

Irankunda had already scored from a set piece once this season for the Hornets, but this time stood up at a crucial moment to salvage a result.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Why United manager didn’t watch decisive penalty<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: Wally pinpoints what Gold Coast has got wrong ‘for a long time’<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Shocking decision’ strikes controversy in Chelsea’s win<\/a><\/p>\n

The crowd completely erupted when the 19-year-old’s strike hit the back of the net, before he celebrated in style with a cartwheel and backflip.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nestory Irankunda’s goal against Southampton\u00a0Twitter<\/p>\n

Irakunda’s stunning effort received plenty of positive reaction on social media in what was the first free kick goal in front of “The Rookery” at the club’s home ground of Vicarage Road since Almen Abdi during the 2016 season.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen a player who can strike the ball like Nestory Irankunda, at any level, anywhere,” Sydney Morning Herald football journalist Vince Rugari said via X.<\/p>\n

“The reverse camera angle just shows you what a goal that is – and it’s legit routine stuff for this kid. Unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

Football has a new home. Stream the Premier League, FA Cup, J.League and NWSL live & on demand, including Premier League with 4K on Stan Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

The official Socceroos account even got in on the action with a a very simple message.<\/p>\n

“Outrageous. See you in camp soon, Nestory.”<\/p>\n

The young winger was previously signed with Bayern Munich and spent time on loan with Swiss outfit Grasshopper, before inking a five-year deal with Watford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Born in Tanzania, he moved to Australia at just three months old and became one of the hottest young talents in the country before being scouted by overseas clubs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nestory Irankunda has continued to turn heads overseas, this time scoring an incredible free kick to save points…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-107754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}