The shortlist for the FIFA Puskás Award has been announced. The award was first made in 2009 and it recognizes the best goal scored worldwide between July 16, 2018 and July 19, 2019.
The award was established in 2009 by then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter and Cristiano Ronaldo was the first winner with a goal for Manchester United against Porto in the Champions League.
Since then the trophy has gone to the famous e.g. Zlatan Ibrahimović and the not so famous – anyone remember Mohd Faiz bin Subri the 2016 winner?
No player has won the award twice but Zlatan Ibrahimović has a chance to become the first. Zlatan won the award in 2013 for a goal for Sweden against England. His nomination for this year’s award was also his 500th career goal.
Lionel Messi has now been nominated 7 times but the closest he has come to winning the award was in 2015 when he finished as runner-up with a goal for Barcelona against Athletic Bilbao.
Here is the list of the 10 nominations for 2018/19 and my top three of the year, ranked in order. We will have to wait until September 23 in Milan to find out the official winner.
#1 Dániel Zsóri for Debrecen FC vs. Ferencváros TC in Nemzeti Bajnoskag 16 February 2019
#2 Fabio Quagliarella for Sampdoria vs. Napoli in Serie A 2 September 2018
#3 Matheus Cunha for RB Leipzig vs. Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga 6 April 2019
Other nominations
- Andros Townsend for Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City in the Premier League 22 December 2018
- Juan Fernando Quintero for River Plate v Racing Club in Argentinian Superliga 10 February 2019
- Ajara Nchout for Cameroon vs. New Zealand at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 20 June 2019
- Zlatan Ibrahimović for the LA Galaxy vs. Toronto FC in MLS 15 September 2018
- Amy Rodriguez for Utah Royals vs. Sky Blue FC in NWSL 16 June 2019
- Billie Simpson for Cliftonville Ladies FC vs. Sion Swifts Ladies FC in Women’s NIFL Premiership 9 August 2018
- Lionel Messi for Barcelona vs. Real Betis in La Liga 17 March 2019
You can see videos of all 10 goals by clicking on this link and you can also sign in and vote. Fan voting closes on September 1, 2019 and the rules can be found by clicking here.
The votes will be tabulated and a top three forwarded to a panel of FIFA Legends and the panel will then choose the overall winner.
Who was Ferenc Puskás?
Puskás was one of the greatest players ever to play the game and arguably soccer’s greatest goalscorer.
Born in 1927, he was an integral part of three legendary teams; the Hungary national team from 1945 to 1956; Honved from 1943 to 1956; Real Madrid from 1958 to 1966.
Puskás scored 84 goals in 85 international games and 514 goals in 530 club games.
Sepp Blatter did a lot of things wrong but the Puskás Award was not one of them.
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