Watch the 10 Goals Nominated for the FIFA Puskás Award

By: Daryl | December 7th, 2009

ferenc puskas award The 10 nominated goals for FIFA’s first annual Puskás Award have been announced. Basically FIFA has selected ten beautiful goals scored between July 2008 and July 2009, and then the public votes for the goal of the year. You can see the videos on FIFA’s website, but you have to click them individually, select your resolution, wait for them to load, etcetera.

So I spent the morning Googling around, and have collected all ten goals nominated for the Puskás Award into one eye-popping post. The one you’re reading right now. After the jump, you’ll find all ten goals, every single one of them a beauty.

Emmanuel Adebayor for Arsenal vs Villarreal in the UEFA Champions League, April 7th, 2009:

Eliran Atar for Bnei Yehuda vs Maccabi Netanya in the Israeli Premier League, February 7th, 2009:

Michael Essien for Chelsea vs Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League, May 6th, 2009:

Grafite for Wolfsburg vs Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga, April 4th, 2009:

Andres Iniesta for Barcelona vs Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League, May 6th, 2009:

Luis Angel Landin for Cruz Azul vs Morelia in the Mexican Clausura, April 12th, 2009:

Katlego Mphela for South Africa vs Spain in the Confederations Cup, June 28th, 2009:

Nilmar for Corinthians vs Internacional in the Campeonato Brasileiro, May 10th, 2009:

Cristiano Ronaldo for Man Utd vs Porto in the UEFA Champions League, April 15th, 2009:

Fernando Torres for Liverpool vs Blackburn in the Premier League, April 11th, 2009:

When I first heard about this award, I suggested that comparing fantastic goals and determining a winner is entirely subjective and so maybe the results shouldn’t be taken all that seriously. But it’s still an excellent opportunity to honour and enjoy the finishes above, so no harm in joining in. Obviously every goal above is a thing of beauty, but my clear favourite here is Grafite’s goal for Wolfsburg vs Bayern. The dribbling alone is impressive, but the cheeky backheel to roll it in is the icing on the goal cake.

If you have a favourite then I’d encourage you to vote for it on FIFA’s website (voting closes noon CET, December 14th) and also to let us know your choice in the comments below.

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Category: World Football

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Sir Hard Ass

Iniesta made Cashly Cole look like a fool!!!
Brett

Grafite's goal is decent, but Nilmar's is magic. What ball control. And such a composed finish. This kid can play. If it had been Messi or Kaka it would have been goal of the year...
NMY

GRAFITE!!! thanks for the link to the voting~ i saw that goal on the highlights that same weekend, and said, that was the sickest goal i've seen this year.

Nilmar's was pretty amazing too, but the smart thing would have been to pass to his strike partner for a one-two, or if not, to have threaded it through to the left mid. so, not as good as Grafite's...

long shots, i've seen way too many in my life...

too bad there wasn't any sick team passing goals from Barca or something...

Grafite!
MattyDub

2 goals from 1 champs league semi-final, amazing... Has to be Atam for me though, gotta love an overhead kick
old apple

Mpheles was a freaking hammer
Luka

I loooove Atar's goal - the reaction from the coaches, the disbelief from the commentator and joy of the player. If he had scored the winner in the Champions League of World Cup final the celebration wouldn't have been as jovial.

Hell, I wouldn't mind if Nilmar, Grafite or Landin as long as Ronaldo, Iniesta and Essien didn't win it. Mphela's is just there for political reasons. Torres' was meh.

In saying all that, I have 100 bucks saying Lady-Hulk Ronaldo will win it, because the whole world loooves him...
Flippy

First of all, this is a top ten. There is no way that every "best" goal is going to be on there. In fact I believe that it should be out of a top hundred (which would be more fun to watch) especially since the only Barca goal (of the 100+ beauties last season) that is in there is the Iniesta goal, which is purely about the moment. I also saw a lot of Zlatan goals last season and yet not one of them was in there. Juninho had several stunners on freekicks. But if I had to choose from the above goals, then I would chose Atar, because the ball went into the upper right corner after a bicycle kick coming from a cross, or Adebayors, because the agility and quickness (it seemed like the Villarreal defender would kick it away) to get the ball off his chest and into the goal. Landin's goal is just plain dumb luck. Extraordinary goal, but still it did not seem he actually tried it until he was falling down.
Thomas

Yeah, how is Gourcuff not here? The Iniesta goal is very far from deserving to be on this list. A simple shot from barely outside the box. Sooo impressed. How was Remi Mareval's goal against OM not here? TVGolo had a MUCH better top ten.
APG

Nilmar. Football at its purest form, simply running by your opponent. In this case, ALL of your opponents. Stunning.
iammrben

How in the hell is Gourcuff's goal not in this list? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Trevor

I went for Grafite as well. All his touches were deft and made the defenders look foolish. Nilmar's goal was a similar act of beauty though and I never would have seen it were it not for this award (was it ever posted on TheOffside?).

As far as pure technical skill, Essien is a master at the volley, but what of Eliran Atar's bicycle volley? Surely that was more technical than Essien's?
rosay

grafite's goal was beautyy
Matt

The circumstances have a lot to do with it. Iniesta took an amazing strike with the pressure of the entire season weighing on that one shot. Incredible stuff
laurie

Also, I wouldn't give Mphela a vote, but that really was an exciting point in the game, especially since SA was playing in front of the home crowd.

I think South Africa may have a bit more of this magic up their sleeves for World Cup. (I would prefer, though, that it not come at the expense of France.)
laurie

That Landin goal was sweet. Amazing he's been such a washout at Houston.
Daryl

You could definitely make an argument that Essien's goal was technically better than Iniesta's in the same game, as Essien's was on the volley. Iniesta's just got a LOT more attention because it was the late late winner, and also because of all the controversy towards the end.
Oli

There's no way to decide which is the best goal, but it's fun to play them all back.

The best technical goal is surely Essiens.

However, I've voted for Iniesta. It's not the best peice of skill, but damn, would I like to know what was going through his nind as he hit it.
Ryan McManus

I vote for Grafite's. And Iniesta's is overrated in my opinion. It was just the circumstance.
Brett

INIESTA