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Guilherme Madruga became the 15th winner of the Puskas Award on Monday evening, receiving the gong thanks to his overhead kick goal for Botafogo.
Madruga’s stunning effort was the deserved winner this year, but was it the best goal ever win the award?
Well, that’s what we’re here to find out.
Here’s 90min’s rankings of the 15 Puskas Award-winning goals.
It was surprising when this goal earned a nomination in 2018, and even more surprising when it garnered 38% of the votes and won the bloody thing.
Salah’s goal against Everton showed off the player’s strength in winning the ball back off a defender, skill in drifting past another defender, and finishing prowess in curling the ball into the far corner from just inside the penalty area, but there isn’t a world in which this should’ve been heralded as the best goal of 2018.
Especially when Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale scored overhead kicks in the Champions League in the same season.
Watch the goal here
Erik Lamela loves a rabona.
The one he bagged against Arsenal in a lockdown north London derby was the second he scored during his tenure at Tottenham Hotspur.
The reason why it’s so low down on our list is that, to be honest, we think the one he scored against Asteras in the Europa League was much better.
Watch the goal here
A name that may ring some bells for Chelsea fans – he played four games for the club – Stoch won the Puskas Award during a career-best spell at Fenerbahce.
The Slovakian fended off Radamal Falcao, Neymar and Lionel Messi to win the award back in 2012, with his looping volleyed effort from 20 yards out that crashed into the top corner in a 1-0 win over Genclerbirligi earning the gong.
Did he deserve a whopping 78% of the vote share that year? Probably not, Falcao’s overhead kick vs Amercia de Cali was pretty spectacular too.
Watch the goal here
One of your main takeaways from this list will be: ‘Jeez, the Puskas Award voting panel do love a good overhead kick.’
Wendell Lira’s is the first of quite a few overheads on this list, with his twisting acrobatic effort narrowly fending off Lionel Messi’s solo goal vs Athletic Club in the Copa del Rey.
Should it have? Not for us to say.*
*No.
Watch the goal here
The 2022 Puskas Award will go down in history as one of the most significant ever.
For the first time ever, an amputee footballer lifted the coveted prize as Marcin Oleksy won for his stunningly acrobatic goal for Warta Poznana in a 1-0 win over Stal Rzeszow.
Watch the goal here
One of the greatest Asian footballers of all time became the second player from the continent to win the Puskas Award back in 2020.
Son Heung-min deservedly lifted the prize thanks to his stunning solo goal against Burnley, which he scored after running basically the length of the pitch.
Watch the goal here
With spells at Bayern and Real Madrid on his resume, it’s fair to say that Hamit Altintop was a pretty good player inhis day.
And if his resume doesn’t impress you, his Puskas Award-winning goal certainly will.
The midfielder thundered a first-time volley into the top corner while on international duty with Turkey against Kazakhstan, making Stoch’s goal in 2012 look like a tap-in in comparison.
Watch the goal here
The inaugural winner of the award, and pretty damn deserve one if you ask us.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s thunderbolt from 35 yards out which sent Manchester United into the semi-finals of the Champions League at Porto’s expense led everyone watching in 2009 to shout:
“S**t! Did you see that?! He must have a foot like a traction engine!”
Watch the goal here
Before the successful mega money move to Barcelona, the unsuccessful mega money move to PSG, the unsuccessful mega money move to Saudi Arabia and all of the injuries which have plagued his career, Neymar was one of the most exciting young footballers we’ve ever seen.
In 2011, the forward provided a glimpse of his brilliance in a 5-4 win over Flamengo.
Neymar burst inside off the left, played a clever one-two, then proceeded to waltz past a defender with a rather outrageous piece of skill, before slipping the ball past the goalkeeper with the outside of his foot.
A truly stunning goal.
Watch the goal here
Following the disappointingly average goal which won Salah the gong in 2018, it was quite nice to see a simply mental one win in 2019.
That mental one came from Daniel Zsori, who appeared out of nowhere on the right of the box to thump an overhead kick into the bottom corner to win a game for Debrecen in added time.
Back to brilliant normality for the Puskas Award.
Watch the goal here
“HOW?!!!!!”
That was the reaction everyone gave when they first saw Mohd Faiz Subri’s free kick which won in 2016.
“Surely that’s a blowaway football and not an actual leather football.”
Is the second reaction everyone gave.
Amazingly is was a real football, and this was a real goal that was scored in real life.
Watch the goal here
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Puskas Award voters love an overhead kick.
They showed their love for acrobatics once again in 2023, giving the award to Guilherme Madruga for his fantastic overhead kick from 20 yards out.
Watch the goal here
A goal everyone knows, loves, and has tried to score in their back garden.
James Rodriguez’s chest control and subsequent volley at the 2014 World Cup is the stuff of legend at this point, and a rightful winner of the Puskas Award.
Watch the goal here
You can count on one hand how many scorpion kick goals you’ve seen in your lifetime, and Olivier Giroud’s one is the best of the bunch.
The France international provided Arsenal fans with a moment to savour back in 2017, showing incredible skill to backheel a ball that was six foot in the air into the top corner.
Watch the goal here
Puskas Award voters love overhead kicks, and this was the best overhead kick of the lot.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a plethora of incredible goals throughout his career, but none were more incredible than this one.
The Swedish star launched himself into the air and looped an audacious overhead kick from fully 30 yards out over the backtracking Joe Hart, over two backtracking England defenders and into the net to complete a hat trick against the Three Lions.
It doesn’t get much better than that.
Watch the goal here
