FIFA Puskás Award

The FIFA Puskás Award [ˈpuʃkaːʃ] is an award established on 20 October 2009 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), at the behest of former president Sepp Blatter, in order to award the player, male or female, judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant, or "most beautiful", goal of the year.

The award is in honor of Ferenc Puskás, the striker of Real Madrid at the late 1950s and the 1960s, and central member of the highly successful Hungarian side of the same era. Puskás is widely considered by many to be the most powerful and prolific forward European football produced in first division football, and scored a once world record of 84 goals in 85 internationals. He is one of the top scorers of the 20th century with 512 goals in 528 matches.

"It is important to preserve the memory of those footballing greats who have left their mark on our history. Ferenc Puskás was not only a player with immense talent who won many honours, but also a remarkable man. FIFA is therefore delighted to pay tribute to him by dedicating this award to his memory," said Blatter at the inauguration of the award in Budapest.

The time-frame for the first award was July 2008 to July 2009. The annual award was presented for the first time during the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year Gala on 21 December in Switzerland, with the Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo being the first prize winner.

The following list includes the nominees for the 2013 award. Voting was possible through the FIFA.com website until 9 December 2013, after a second voting round was held between the top three goals from the first round. The award to the winning goal from the second round was presented on 13 January 2014.

The nominees for 2014 were announced on 12 November.

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees in 12 November 2015.

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees in 21 November 2016.

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