At the end of the footballing year, one prize drives out the other. A few hours before the presentation of the prestigious Ballon d’Or, Fifa unveiled the list of eight players and three players preselected for the Puskas Prize, which rewards the author of the most beautiful goal of the year.
The results of the votes will be communicated on January 17th. In the meantime, everyone can vote on the Fifa site. Among the contenders is a French player in the French Championship… in Ligue 2.
Auxerrois Gauthier Hein was indeed chosen for a goal scored in Niort on April 10. The 25-year-old Burgundian midfielder had managed to dribble five defenders into the box before scoring closely in the top corner of the Niort goalkeeper. We had even heard Messi, Messi to greet this achievement, the third of the Auxerrois. That evening, the AJA had largely won (4-0).
The native of Thionville likes spectacular goals. Last weekend, during the 8th round of the Coupe de France, AJA won in Chambéry with a surreal score of 6-4 after leading 5-1. And who scored the 6th Auxerre goal? Gauthier Hein, after a superb solo tumble on the right side…
Created in 2009 as a tribute to Ferenc Puskás, the great Hungarian scorer of the 1950s, the prize has already recognized works by Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, James Rodriguez or Mohamed Salah. Olivier Giroud is the only Habs to have his name engraved on the trophy in 2017 while playing at Arsenal.
The striker of the France team had allowed the Gunners to beat Crystal Palace in the Premier League (1-0). An acrobatic pigeon wing in the middle of a successful race from… January 1st after a fantastic collective action.
To make its selection, Fifa relies on a certain number of criteria, subjective or objective: aesthetics, the importance of the match (in descending order: national “A” teams, continental tournaments and first division championships), the absence of the luck factor or of an error made by the other team allowing the goal and fair play (the player must not have behaved badly during the match).
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