By DAN KARELL
There were surely many candidates between November 2012 until now, but FIFA has whittled down the list to ten of the best goals in the last 12 months.
On Monday, FIFA announced the shortlist of nominees for the FIFA Puskas award, which goes to the player (male or female) who scored the best goal of the year. Past winners of the award include Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and last year’s winner, Miroslav Stoch.
Among this year’s nominees include the stunning overhead kick from 40-yards out by Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Sweden against England, Pachuca midfielder Daniel Ludueña’s lob from past the halfway line, and Udinese forward Antonio Di Natale’s first-time left footed blast into the side netting from the volley. After two phases of voting from fans, the winner will be announced during FIFA’s Ballon d’Or gala on January 13, 2014.
Check out the nominees (with video of their goals) and come back here and let us know who you voted for in the comments section below.
At the risk of getting Zlatan-kicked, I will say that di Natale’s volley was very, very nice and very, very difficult.
i like neymars goal
Camilo’s goal against PTFC several weeks ago was literally better than every single one of these, MLS bias aside.
No way that was better than Zlatan’s miracle bike.
That said, I did think of it on 1-2 volleys and did think it was equal to or better than a number of the others. My guess here again is that there’s an issue of the cut-off date. We might see both Camilo’s and Ibra’s vs Bastia in the 2014 competition.
+1. Hope so. Camilo’s was pretty similar to Kone’s but a little further out and from a worse angle. Di Natale’s looked pretty similar to RVP’s near the end of the season last year.
i think neymar goal is the beast 😀
There should be a non-Zlatan category. Not a fair fight.
What makes Ibra’s goal so great here, apart from of course the sheer physical feat of it, is that you can see he’s already thinking that this is what he’s going to try from about the moment Hart exits the area and goes up to head the ball.
And you could see that same planning in his eyes earlier this season with that killer goal against Bastia, where he was sandwiched between 2 defenders and hooked his leg around the one behind him to basically backheel the ball into the upper 90, despite being so marked.
As one of the announcers said on that occasion, it just doesn’t seem to occur to Ibra that he really should not be scoring goals in such situations…
Wow I hadn’t seen that Bastia goal. How is that not in contention for Goal of the Year?! Incredible! Though I would still take the goal against England of the bunch.
Yeah I don’t know when the cut-off is, but it’s a good one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0B2IKXRs3Y
+10. So true. Great link also. Hadn’t seen that one.
I just hope De Vanna’s goal doesn’t finish last. She doesn’t even begin turning her back until the pass reaches max height.
But yeah, Zlatan.
Lot of great goals, some I hadn’t seen… but this award is Zlatan’s.
Yeah, but how many of these made the SBI “Must See Goal” list this year?
can only be zlatan. who does that?
The winner has to be Wondo’s goal against Cuba. either of them are worthy
All of Wondo’s goals are worthy.
No Americans Abroad recap from this weekend???? Booooooo.
Zlatan’s goal– no question!
It’s the clearest decision FIFA has had to make since the 2022 World Cup host.