OMG could this Malaysian goal win FIFA Goal of The Year? [Updated]

[Update 24/11/16]: It seems the hype surrounding Faiz Subri’s goal was entirely justified because his goal is among the 10 nominees for 2016’s Puskás Award! In fact, the Youtube video of his nomination has close to a million views already!

But it definitely won’t be easy for him to win because the other goals are pretty amazing as well, and his goal is up against some from the best players in the world including Lionel Messi and Neymar.

And what’s going to happen next is basically a voting period to shortlist the 3 best goals. So between the 21st of November to the 2nd of December, the public (yes that means all of Malaysia as well!) can vote for their favourite goal here. After that is done, voting will reopen again for the public to choose their favourite from the top 3 goals, from then all the way to the award ceremony on the 9th of January.

So go check out the goals and vote for your favourite! But in our totally unbiased opinion, Faiz Subri’s goal is definitely the best one of them all.  😛

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So on Tuesday night (16 Feb), during a regular Super League match, a Pulau Pinang player did something on the field that has since captured the world’s imagination (even Sports Illustrated covered it yo). Here… watch this.

This player from Malaysia just scored the best free kick you’ll see all year https://t.co/qLqCXNGbRwpic.twitter.com/M4Mg8VZizd

— Complex UK (@complex_uk) February 16, 2016

The goal, scored by Pulau Pinang player, Faiz Subri was one of TWO (the other one not bad also la) he managed on the way to a 4-1 victory against Pahang in their Super League game on Tuesday night. And it wasn’t just viewed by Malaysians…

“Subri scored the world-class effort in the 62nd minute as his side beat Pahang 4-1. The goal has captured the world’s imagination with Subri trending on Twitter.” The Sydney Morning Herald

“Outrageous free-kick scored in Malaysian Super League an immediate contender for 2016 Puskas Award” – Independent UK

“If you managed to catch the home side’s 4-1 win, you were fortunate to have witnessed one of the best free-kicks you’ll see this year” – The Bleacher Report

“Puskas Award winner 2016? Watch the Malaysian free-kick so bendy it defies laws of physics” – Mirror UK

But wait, a number of them mention that this goal may be a contender for something called the Puskás Award. What’s this award they’re talking about which sounds like a gomen department?

 

What in the world is a Puspakom Pustaka Basmati Puskás award?

Sokay if the award doesn’t sound very glamorous to you. When our new BM editor heard it, he actually thought it was a Malaysian award because it sounded like PUSPAKOM. But the Puskás Award (named after Hungarian footballer Ferenc Puskás) is actually an award given by FIFA (yes the World Cup mia FIFA) to the best goal of the year. Some of the notable past winners include Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar.

But with such big names winning the award, some of you may be asking, how could anything related to Malaysian football ever compete with such big superstars?? Well it’s actually because the award is actually given to the best goal scored in any championship, by any person, of any nationality. 

Back in 2009 when the award was first introduced (yea, it’s quite a new award) FIFA actually had a list of requirements of how to determine the winner. So stuff like how big the match is, whether mistakes were involved that led to the goal, stuff like that.

But in the last 2 years, it seems that the rules were relaxed a bit. For example, the winner of the 2015 award was a goal that was scored in a STATE league, not even national. Aside from that, this article also discusses how the winner is determined is actually pretty sketchy because FIFA picks the top 10, then the public votes for the winner.

Just in case any of you are wondering if some random kid scores a super-chun goal and it was somehow recorded on video. Well, you’re welcome to try. But the rules say “championship” so it probably has to be a competition of some kind. And if you do make it to some competition also, you’re gonna have to score something really amazing goal to get nominated la.

 

Let’s see if this Malaysian goal can stand up to some of the past winners

So after seeing that amazing, amazing goal by Faiz Subri, we thought we’d line up some of the goals of the past winners of the Puskás Award to see whether Subri’s goal got chance not. Bear in mind that these are reallyyyy subjective (even FIFA said it), so if you don’t find any of these goals beautiful, it’s either not many amazing goals were scored that year, or you just don’t know how to appreciate an amazing goal like the rest of the world.  👿 (just kiddingggg)

And because it’s very subjective, we’ve selected these based on the verdict given to us by our very own football-loving CILISOS staff :lol:.  Also don’t worry if the videos are blurry, it gets more HD over the years.

2009 winner: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo scored this goal during the quarter-finals of the 2008-2009 UEFA Champions League, so aside from being pretty darn good, it was also important la.

 

2011 winner: Neymar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Va6TZhmDQ

Scored in a Brazil top league game. Doesn’t look too great at a glance but if you watch the replay, it looks almost like a DoTA game. Like someone kena owneddddd~

 

2013 winner: Zlatan Ibrahimović

[Update]: FIFA has blocked the video from playing on other websites, but you can still watch the video on YouTube itself. Just click “Watch on Youtube” instead.

P.S. Special thanks to commentor Audrey Quah for pointing it out to us  😀

International friendly. This one look like a goal out of Shaolin Soccer.

 

2015 winner: Wendell Lira

[Update]: FIFA has blocked the video from playing on other websites, but you can still watch the video on YouTube itself. Just click “Watch on Youtube” instead.

The goal we mentioned earlier that was scored in a state league. Technically the guy could have been a Malaysian, cos it looks like he was Sepak Takraw-ing the ball.

But there you have it. Some of the goals from the past winners of the Puskás Award. Now for the golden question. What do you think? Can Faiz Subri’s goal line-up against these superstars?

Well, here’s hoping we’ll see his name up there with all them famous people come nomination day (which will probably be at the end of the year because the last awards only just concluded in January).  😉