Remember Son Heung-Min’s goal against Burnley? ...No, not the one from last month, the other one. Yeah, THAT one. Well, it’s been rightly lauded for a long time now, nearly a year in fact, even winning the 2019-20 Premier League Goal of the Season. And now it’s up for another award: FIFA The Best Puskas Award, for best goal in all of football.
As it should be, because it’s one hell of a goal in a nominating field that is, by definition full of “hell of a goals.” And as usual, Sonny has a lot of competition, including three goals scored by women.
Here are the other nominees, with links to their goals:
- Shirley Cruz (Costa Rica vs. Panama, 2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying)
- Giorgian de Arrascaeta (Flamengo vs. Ceará, 2019 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A)
- Jordan Flores (Dundalk vs. Shamrock Rovers, 2020 League of Ireland Premier Division)
- Andre-Pierre Gignac (UANL vs. UNAM, 2020 Liga MX)
- Sophie Ingle (Chelsea vs. Arsenal, 2019-20 WSL)
- Zlatko Junuzovic (Red Bull Salzburg vs. Rapid Wien, 2019-20 Austrian Bundesliga)
- Hlompho Kekana (Mamelodi Sundowns vs. Cape Town City, 2019-20 South African Premier Division)
- Leonel Quiñónez (Macará vs. Universidad Católica, 2019 Ecuadorian Serie A)
- Luis Suarez (Barcelona vs. Mallorca, 2019-20 La Liga)
- Caroline Wier (Manchester City vs. Manchester United, 2019-20 WSL)
OK, there are the usual scorpion kicks and thunderbastards from long distance. There’s an audacious no-look back-heel goal and a deeeeeeeep free kick from past the halfway line that caught the keeper way off his line. But none of those other goals involve a player dribbling 90 yards at full pace past eight players in 12 seconds before slotting low into the far corner past the keeper. And to my knowledge you can’t commemorate any of the other goals in t-shirt or hoodie form.
The Puskas Award is in two stages — the initial list is whittled down to three finalists with 50% weight given via online vote on FIFA’s website, and then FIFA itself decides the winner from the final trio. That means Luis Suarez is almost guaranteed to be in the final, but if enough Tottenham fans vote we can get Sonny in the final three. You should probably do that.