Watch: Will this go down as one of the greatest misses in football history?

We are not exaggerating here.

Midfielder Aster Vranckx is a talented player. At 17, he has already represented the Belgian U19 team but in the match between KV Mechelen and Oostende in the Belgian Pro League on Saturday, he managed to make an embarrassing blunder that will probably be the stuff of nightmares for a while to come.

Following a poor clearance from an Oostende defender, the goalkeeper was forced to come off his line in order to punch the ball away from danger.

But the keeper doesn’t do the intended punch and the ball fell to an opposition attacker inside the box.

The forward takes a crack at goal, hits the ball first time and it thuds into the crossbar. The ricochet makes its way to Vranckx, who is no more than two yards away from goal.

Two yards away. No defender in sight. No goalkeeper around either. It should have been the easiest of tap-ins but instead Vranckx somehow allowed his feet to get all tangled up and then watched the ball and himself hit the post.

To make things worse, Oostende scored a last-gasp winner in the 95th minute.

You have to watch this one to believe it. And spare a thought for the teenager.