The FIFA Puskás Award is the ultimate celebration of footballing aesthetics, a prize where a local league stunner from a semi-professional player can stand toe-to-toe with a World Cup volley from a global superstar. As we look back from March 2026, the award has become a yearly ritual for “golazo” hunters everywhere, serving as the definitive catalog of the sport’s most breathtaking moments.
Established on October 20, 2009, the award was created by FIFA at the behest of then-president Sepp Blatter. The goal was to fill a glaring gap in individual honors. While the Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year traditionally rewarded consistency, silverware, and seasonal dominance, there was no official platform to recognize the “art” of the goal, the singular, isolated moment of genius that transcends a player’s overall form.
The mission statement was clear: to celebrate the most aesthetically significant or most beautiful goal of the calendar year, regardless of the level of competition. It was a democratic revolution in football awards; for the first time, a striker in the Brazilian second division or a midfielder in the Malaysian Super League could share the stage with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
The choice of namesake was no accident. Ferenc Puskás, known as “The Galloping Major,” was a figure of mythical proportions in football history. As the captain of the legendary Hungarian “Magical Magyars” of the 1950s and one of the cornerstones of Real Madrid’s first great dynasty, Puskás’s statistics are almost incomprehensible to modern fans. He netted a staggering 806 goals in 793 games, including 84 goals in just 85 caps for Hungary, a world record that stood for decades.
Puskás wasn’t just a prolific scorer; he was a scorer of “great” goals. He was famous for his technical mastery, a thunderous left foot, and an ability to score from impossible angles, most notably his “drag-back” goal against England at Wembley in 1953, which shattered the myth of English defensive invincibility. In 1997, the IFFHS officially honored him as the best top-tier goalscorer of the 20th century. Naming the award after him was a way for FIFA to ensure his legacy of technical perfection remained the benchmark for every future generation.
The beauty of a goal is subjective, but FIFA implemented a set of “Rules of Allocation” to provide a framework for the jury. To qualify as “Puskás-worthy,” a goal must meet several non-negotiable standards. The goal must be intentional. Flukes, deflections off defenders, or goals resulting from a goalkeeper’s catastrophic mistake are disqualified. The player must not have behaved badly in the match (e.g., through dissent or unsporting conduct) and must have a clean doping record.
Until recently, the award was judged without distinction of gender or nationality. However, a major structural shift occurred in 2024: the Puskás Award became exclusively for male players following the creation of the Marta Award, named after the Brazilian legend, which now recognizes the best goal in women’s football.
The voting process has also evolved to prevent the award from becoming a mere “popularity contest.” Following the 2018 controversy, where Mohamed Salah won for a relatively standard (by Puskás standards) curling effort against Everton over more acrobatic strikes from Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, FIFA adjusted the weights. Today, the winner is determined by a 50/50 split between registered fans and a panel of “FIFA Legends,” ensuring that technical difficulty is weighed as heavily as viral popularity.
The history of the award is a highlight reel of human potential. The Inaugural Strike was Cristiano Ronaldo’s in 2009 that set the tone with a 40-yard “thunderbolt” for Manchester United against Porto. The ball traveled with such velocity and lack of dip that it appeared to ignore the laws of aerodynamics.
Zlatan Ibrahimović (2013) won for his 30-yard overhead kick against England. It remains perhaps the most audacious goal in the award’s history, a moment where a 6’5″ striker launched himself into the air to hit a ball that was nearly ten feet high. In 2015, Wendell Lira, playing in the Brazilian regional leagues, beat Lionel Messi to the award. Lira’s story remains the ultimate Puskás fairy tale, an unheralded player proving that on any given Saturday, anyone can be the best in the world.
Marcin Oleksy (2022) became the first amputee to win the award. His incredible acrobatic volley for Warta Poznań wasn’t just a great amputee goal; it was one of the most technically perfect volleys ever captured on film, proving football excellence transcends physical limitations.
The last two years have seen a return to the classic “overhead kick” dominance. Alejandro Garnacho (2024): The then Manchester United winger won for his jaw-dropping bicycle kick against Everton at Goodison Park. Garnacho had to contort his body while moving away from the goal to connect with a cross that was behind him, sending the ball into the top corner in a moment of pure, instinctive brilliance.
Santiago Montiel (2025): The current holder, Independiente’s Montiel, secured the 2025 prize for an “audacious bicycle kick from outside the penalty box” during an Argentine playoff match. It was a strike that “raised the roof” of the Estadio Libertadores de América and beat out high-profile nominees like Lamine Yamal and Declan Rice.
The Puskás Award has done something rare: it has entered the common footballing vernacular. When a player scores a goal of unusual quality, even in a Sunday league match, the immediate reaction from fans and commentators alike is to label it a “Puskás contender.”
It remains the most democratic honor in football. While the Ballon d’Or rewards the wealthy and the established, the Puskás Award reminds us that brilliance is a universal language. Whether it happens at the Bernabéu in front of 80,000 people or in a rainy park in Poland, if the ball hits the net with enough beauty, the world will take notice.
