Away from the hype surrounding the main Ballon d’Or nominees this week, the final shortlist has also been revealed for the relatively new and aptly named FIFA Puskas award. The first player on the list is Lionel Messi, who manages to worm his way into another award ceremony this year, for his Champions League goal against Arsenal. The Second is name included is the young Brazilian sensation that is Neymar, with his effort for Santos in a league fixture against Flamengo. The final nomination is for Wayne Rooney and his acrobatic overhead kick against Manchester City in the Premier League. All the goals can be seen here on the FIFA website.
The criteria for choosing the winner are slightly more detailed than the general description of ‘most beautiful goal of the year’ would suggest. The importance of the match must also be taken into account, presumably alluding to the fact that the bigger the match the more pressure on the shoulders of the goalscorer, the more courage shown to score the goal and the relative impact it has. The goal also shouldn’t be as a result of luck or good fortune such as deflections or miskicks, which detract from the purity of the goal. Also, the goal should ‘support fair play’, relating to the behaviour of the player during the match.
If we look at the previous winners of the award, it has gone to Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 and Hamit Altintop in 2010. Both of these previous winning strikes were long range efforts which demonstrated a great amount of technical ability when striking the ball, as well as a certain amount of audacity to try a shot from such range. Looking in particularly at Altintop’s goal, where he approached the edge of the penalty area, adjusted his body position and volleyed the ball into the top corner, aesthetics obviously mean a lot in winning this award.
This would suggest that Rooney has a great chance in winning it this year, as his goal was technically quite similar. He waits as the ball drops around shoulder height and then unleashes a perfectly timed overhead kick into the top corner, one of the hardest skills to pull of with precision. Not only this, but Rooney scored the goal in a crucial game and at a crucial time, resulting in a 2-1 win for Manchester United in the derby.