The most arresting goals of the year are back under the brightest of spotlights. The FIFA Puskás Award, football’s annual celebration of pure technique and imagination, has unveiled its 2025 shortlist of 11 nominees. It’s a mix that captures both stardom and serendipity: established names capable of sculpting moments on command, and upstarts whose flashes of brilliance cut through the noise.

For a decade and a half, the Puskás has functioned as football’s collective memory of wonder. With past winners like Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the bar for beauty is high, and the debate is eternal: what makes a goal the year’s most beautiful? In 2025, that argument runs through a tapestry of volleys, bicycles, and lightning-quick improvisation.

The beauty contest of football, back for 2025

The Puskás Award recognizes the most beautiful goal scored in professional football each year. Unlike player-of-the-year awards weighed down by full-season narratives, this one isolates a single instant: the strike that replays in your mind even after the final whistle fades. It’s about balance, audacity, technique, and the gasp in the stadium that follows.

For 2025, FIFA’s official shortlist features 11 goals. From that lineup, the public plays a pivotal role: fans can cast their votes on FIFA’s official website, shaping the final decision and ensuring the winner reflects the global conversation.

“Are we rewarding pure technique or the moment that made the stadium gasp?”

The shortlist’s top-ranked highlights

Among the leading selections for 2025 are a compelling set of goals that blend elite execution with high-stakes timing. The following were ranked among the top entries:

• 1) Ezequiel Cerutti – Central Cordoba 0–1 San Lorenzo
• 2) Irakli Yegoian – De Graafschap 3–1 Vitesse (a 20-year-old defender unleashing an acrobatic bicycle kick from the edge of the box that kissed the underside of the bar)
• 3) Erik Lamela – PAOK Thessaloniki 1–2 AEK Athens (a skilled volley from the player whose Tottenham days made “rabona” part of his brand)
• 4) Alerrandro – Vitoria 2–2 Cruzeiro
• 5) Elicley Soares – Portuguesa-RJ 2–1 Madureira
• 6) Angel Di Maria – Benfica 7–0 Estrela Amadora
• 7) Toral Bayramov – Bodo/Glimt 1–2 Qarabag
• 8) Josh Windass – Sheffield Wednesday 4–2 Derby County
• 9) Harry Wilson – Fulham 2–1 Brentford
• 10) Lyndon Dykes – Birmingham City 2–1 Lincoln City

These strikes span geographies and contexts, a hallmark of the Puskás. A bicycle crafted by a young defender. A volley from a seasoned playmaker. League clashes, cup ties, and the kind of strikes that elevate routine fixtures into memory.

Stars vs. upstarts: why this list resonates

Part of the Puskás’ enduring appeal is its democratic lens. Household names share space with names casual fans may be discovering for the first time. This year, beyond the top-ranked list, additional nominees include Declan Rice, Lamine Yamal, Rizky Ridho, Alessandro Deiola, and Pedro de la Vega. It’s a roll call that underscores football’s reach: a teenage prodigy, a midfield metronome, rising talents from different footballing cultures, all in one conversation.

Consider the contrasts. Lamela’s inclusion for AEK Athens evokes his Tottenham-era flair, but the goal in question is a volley—a reminder he’s more than a one-trick artist. On the other end of the spectrum, Irakli Yegoian’s acrobatic overhead at De Graafschap is the essence of discovery: a 20-year-old defender phasing into slow motion, controlling body and ball in the span of a heartbeat before the strike rattles in off the bar.

“Yegoian’s bicycle wasn’t just acrobatics—it was geometry off the underside of the bar.”

What voters should weigh

Public voting is open, and with it comes responsibility. The Puskás isn’t about the opponent or the match’s magnitude on paper; it’s about the purity of the strike. Here are the factors that typically sway informed voters:

• Technique: First-touch mastery, body shape, timing, and contact.
• Originality: Uncommon solutions—from long-range audacity to balletic improvisation.
• Degree of difficulty: Tight angles, aerial control, pressure, and distance.
• Aesthetic impact: The visual rhythm of the build-up and finish – the kind that freezes defenders and silences commentary.

From that vantage, multiple nominees make a strong case. Yegoian’s edge-of-the-box bicycle fits the classic Puskás archetype: execution under constraint. Lamela’s volley bubbles with technique and timing. And a slate that includes Di Maria and emerging talents alike means the final vote may hinge on taste as much as taxonomy.

Names that move the needle

Angel Di Maria, an artisan of the left foot, appears again, reminding us that elegance can coexist with ruthlessness. Harry Wilson’s inclusion reflects a winger defined by touch and whip. Josh Windass and Lyndon Dykes bring the English game’s relentless tempo into the frame. And Ezequiel Cerutti’s strike in a tight San Lorenzo win sets the tone atop the rankings: economy of movement, decisive outcome.

Beyond that group, the presence of Declan Rice and Lamine Yamal is instructive. Rice, a midfield cornerstone, and Yamal, a teenage phenomenon, broaden the shortlist’s profile. The message is clear: the Puskás isn’t typecast. It finds its heroes wherever the ball takes flight.

“If Lamela wins without a rabona, is that character development or an injustice?”

How to make your vote count

The process is refreshingly simple: the public can vote on FIFA’s official website. That mechanism gives supporters agency in deciding which goal defines the year. Our advice? Watch every angle available, then watch again. Strip away the commentary and focus on the fundamentals—the first touch, the body control, the ball’s flight, the defender’s distance. The best Puskás goals reveal more on the second, third, and fourth viewing.

The bigger picture

In a sport obsessed with metrics, the Puskás preserves a place for art. It’s one night each year when aesthetics outweigh analytics and memory outruns spreadsheets. That’s why the list matters: it’s a snapshot of how the global game still values the unteachable.

Whether the final nod goes to a veteran playmaker, a rising forward, or a young defender whose acrobatics brushed the crossbar, 2025’s edition has already done its job. It’s made us argue, rewind, and fall in love with the game’s simplest question: how beautiful can a single strike be?

The stage is set. The shortlist is live. The rest is up to the vote.