The Puskas Award has quickly become a treasured individual prize in world football.
Given to the player who scores the best goal in a calendar year, the honour is not easy to come by, with hundreds of spectacular strikes considered worthy winners each year.
Handed out since 2009, the Puskas Award coincided with an era dominated by two players in particular — Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. With 12 Ballon d’Or wins between them among a host of team and individual honours, nobody has come close to Leo and CR7 when it comes to footballing achievements in the past 20 years.
Neither are strangers to finding the back of the net, but have either managed to pick up the honour of the best goal of the year? The Sporting News takes a look at how they’ve faired.
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Ronaldo Puskas Award history
As one of the most prolific forwards football has ever seen, Ronaldo fittingly took out the first-ever Puskas Award in 2009.
The Portugal attacker received the honour for his Champions League strike against Porto while playing for Manchester United.
Ronaldo’s goal came after six minutes from 40 yards out when he found the top left corner in stunning fashion as the Red Devils won the match 1-0.
Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to win the Puskas award for this 40-yard goal against Porto in 2009 🔥
(via @ManUtd)pic.twitter.com/XnPFr5ytKi
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) March 22, 2020
Since then, Ronaldo has only been nominated for a Puskas on one other occasion in 2018.
Another crazy Champions League strike, this one came for Real Madrid against Juventus and saw Ronaldo finish second in voting that year behind Mohamed Salah.
⏪ Throwback to when Cristiano Ronaldo’s overhead kick for Real Madrid had every Juventus fan on their feet 🙌pic.twitter.com/6GNAHEt0rh
— GOAL (@goal) April 30, 2020
Messi Puskas Award history
Unlike Ronaldo, Messi is yet to win a Puskas Award but has been nominated a remarkable seven times.
In 2011, the Argentine finished runner-up behind Neymar for a classy finish against Arsenal in the Champions League.
On this day in 2011, Barcelona knocked out Arsenal in the Champions League round of 16 thanks to a Leo Messi double.
One of his greatest goals 🤭
(via @UEFAcom_fr)pic.twitter.com/KiKV1aIm3V
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 8, 2022
Messi would finish second once again in 2015 with his stunning solo Copa del Rey strike against Athletic Bilbao, beaten by another Brazilian player in the form of Wendell Lira.
On this day in 2015, Lionel Messi took on the entire Athletic Bilbao team to score one of the greatest goals of all-time 🙌
(via @fcbarcelona_tr)
pic.twitter.com/jrvOjCZ3Zj— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 30, 2020
Hungarian Daniel Zsori then pipped Messi to a Puskas in 2019 with the then-Barcelona star’s chipped goal in La Liga against Real Betis unable to secure him one of few trophies that has so far alluded him.
Throwback to Messi goal vs Real Betis 2019 🤯 pic.twitter.com/2reKMBgYzS
— LM 🇦🇷⁷ (@Leo_messii_7) January 7, 2022
Messi wasn’t nominated for the Puskas Award for 2022, 2023 or 2024 and is running out of time to clinch one before he hangs up his boots.
Puskas Award winners all-time list
The first winner was none other than the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo, with the likes of Neymar, James Rodriguez, and Mohamed Salah some of the other recognisable names on the list of previous award winners.
No player has yet won the Puskas Award twice and there are 11 new names in contention for the 2024 prize.
| Year | Player | Team | Match / Goal |
| 2023 | Guilherme Madruga | Botafogo | vs. Novorizontino (1-0) |
| 2022 | Marcin Oleksy | Warta Poznan | vs. Stal Rzeszow (1-0) |
| 2021 | Erik Lamela | Tottenham | vs. Arsenal (1-0) |
| 2020 | Son Heung-Min | Tottenham | vs. Burnley (3-0) |
| 2019 | Daniel Zsori | Debrecen | vs. Ferencvaros (2-1) |
| 2018 | Mohamed Salah | Liverpool | vs. Everton (1-0) |
| 2017 | Oliver Giroud | Arsenal | vs. Crystal Palace (1-0) |
| 2016 | Mohd Faiz Subri | Penang | vs. Pahang (4-1) |
| 2015 | Wendell Lira | Goianesia | vs. Atletico Goianiense (1-0) |
| 2014 | James Rodriguez | Colombia | vs. Uruguay (1-0) |
| 2013 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Sweden | vs. England (4-2) |
| 2012 | Miroslav Stoch | Fenerbahce | vs. Genclerbirligi (6-1) |
| 2011 | Neymar | Santos | vs. Flamengo (4-5) |
| 2010 | Hamit Altintop | Turkey | vs. Kazakhstan (2-0) |
| 2009 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Man United | vs. Porto (1-0) |
Why is it called Puskas Award?
The Puskas Award is given to the individual, men’s or women’s, who scored the best goal of the calendar year.
Unlike the other The Best awards, the Puskas Award has been handed out since 2009, originally created as its own standalone award given out each year by FIFA before being absorbed into The Best proceedings.
The award is named after Ferenc Puskas, a legendary Hungarian forward who is regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers of all time, scoring 514 goals across his career with Budapest Honved and Real Madrid.
