FIFA started this last year and Ronaldo’s 36 yard strike against Porto in the Champions League was the winner. Here it is:
Here’s the nominees for this year’s award (there’s links to all the goals). Definitely some scorchers in there worthy of mention but, for me, there’s still nothing that compares with this Xavi to Alves to Messi goal from Febuary of this year. Nothing. I’ve watched it over 20 times and the precision of Xavi’s pass still stuns me. When you read the criteria for how goals were chosen for the award it’s criminal that this didn’t make it.
incroyable
Or… “increïble!” (Catalan)
That pass went by five defenders, had to be released within 1/10th of a second of when it was or risk being cut out (or putting Alves offside) and then had to be placed on exactly the blade of grass it ended up on when Alves received it or it wouldn’t have allowed him to square to Messi for the tap in.
indeed. from what I saw of Xavi in the World Cup, this pass was clearly no fluke. It seems the top ten list is dominated by the category of “the brilliant individual effort,” and as wonderful as each one is, the collective achievement, as epitomized by Xavi to Alves to Messi, is always more breathtaking.