FIFA Puskás Award


The FIFA Puskás Award is an award established on 20 October 2009 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, at the behest of then-president Sepp Blatter, to be awarded to the player judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant, or "most beautiful", goal of the calendar year. The Puskás Award is announced yearly and is considered by voting. From 2024, only male players are eligible to win, with the FIFA Marta Award established for female players instead.
The award is in honour of Ferenc Puskás, the striker of Real Madrid during the late 1950s to the late 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 Europe produced in first-division football and was honoured by IFFHS in 1997 as the best top-tier goalscorer of the 20th century. Puskás scored 806 goals in 793 games and his 86 national team goals in 90 outings was a world record at the time.
The first award was presented from 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 Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo as the first prize winner.

Award criteria and procedure

Criteria

The criteria for the award are:
  • The goal should be "aesthetically beautiful".
  • The goal should be scored without the result of luck or a mistake.
  • The goal should be in support of fair play.
  • The goal should be judged without distinction of championship or nationality.

    Procedure

FIFA nominates eleven goals each year for voting. Voting is done by two groups: registered users on FIFA's website, and a panel of experts appointed by FIFA. Each individual in both groups selects their top three goals, assigning five points to the first, three points to the second, and one point to the third. Following the first vote, the totals from fans and Legends are used to rank the eleven goals individually inside their respective categories. Based on these rankings, each group assigns “scoring points” to the goals, with the first-ranked goal receiving thirteen points, the second getting eleven, the third nine, and so on down to one point for the eleventh. For each goal, the scoring points from the fan group and the FIFA Legends group are added together, and the goal with the highest combined score is awarded the Puskás Award.

Winners and nominees

2009

RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|POR

2010

2011

2012

2013

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.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfb|SWEfb|ENG

2014

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 12 November 2014.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfb|COLfb|URU

2015

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 12 November 2015.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfbaicon|BRAfbaicon|BRA

2016

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 21 November 2016.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfbaicon|MASfbaicon|MAS

2017

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 22 September 2017.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|ENG

2018

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 3 September 2018.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionVote percentage
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|ENG

2019

FIFA announced the list of 10 nominees on 19 August 2019.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetition
1stfbaicon|HUNfbaicon|HUN

2020

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 25 November 2020.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|ENG

2021

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 17 January 2022.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|ENG

2022

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 12 January 2023.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1stfbaicon|POLfbaicon|POL

2023

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 22 September 2023.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1stfbaicon|BRAfbaicon|BRA

2024

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 28 November 2024.
Beginning this year, FIFA also established the FIFA Marta Award as a separate category for female players, named after the Brazil women's forward and captain for over two decades from 2002 until 2024.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1stfbaicon|ENGfbaicon|ENG

2025

FIFA announced the list of 11 nominees on 13 November 2025.
RankPlayerTeamOpponentScoreCompetitionPoints
1st

Statistics

Awards won by nationality

Most nominations received

PlayerNominationsYears