The shortlist for the 2025 Puskas Award has been revealed.
Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal are looking the leading contenders looking to follow in the footsteps of previous winners including Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Mohamed Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo.
But which have been the absolute best of the best of the calendar year? We’ve ranked all 11 goals on the shortlist.
11. Lucas Ribeiro – MAMELODI SUNDOWNS vs Borussia Dortmund
Admittedly DAZN cut out the lovely turn that gets Ribeiro turning on the afterburners, but we’re still a bit perplexed about this one.
It’s a cool goal, a bit novel, but ultimately Ribeiro rides one challenge and runs quite fast in a straight line before a regulation finish.
Call us conspiratorial, but we reckon FIFA were a bit too desperate to showcase a moment from their expanded Club World Cup.
Micky van de Ven and countless others were robbed.
Lucas Ribeiro 🆚 Borussia Dortmundpic.twitter.com/RqNL6VbYP3
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
10. Rizky Ridho – PERSIJA JAKARTA vs Arema
Yeah, it’s good. But is this one of the 11 best goals of the year? Really?
Call us spoiled, but we’ve become a bit desensitised to long-range efforts catching out a stranded goalkeeper. Yawn.
Rizky Ridho 🆚 Aremapic.twitter.com/BLZOeECede
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
9. Lamine Yamal – Espanyol vs BARCELONA
No disrespect to Yamal, who is genuinely one of the most joyful footballers since Ronaldinho. But we predict he’ll gift us considerably more Puskas-worthy goals in the years to come.
Arjen Robben scored about 50 goals as good as this. We’re not even sure if it’s Yamal’s best goal of 2025.
Lamine Yamal 🆚 Espanyolpic.twitter.com/tZoYhnZIrX
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
8. Alerrando – VITORIA v Cruzeiro
As will become evident as you make your way through this list, the people behind the Puskas award are a bit obsessed with overhead kicks.
This is a lovely one, no doubt about it. But it’s only the third-best overhead kick of the year.
Alerrandro 🆚 Cruzeiropic.twitter.com/ZT3k5dbGuM
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
7. Alessandro Deiola – CAGLIARI vs Venezia
Not the kind of tiki-taka jogo bonito you’d normally associate with Serie A. The Italian top flight is living up to its reputation with 17 goalless draws so far this season.
We can only commend Deiola for punctuating the humdrum by putting the finishing touches to this sexily crafted move.
The team of the year. But not quite at the level to trouble the top half – you’re talking Jack Wilshere vs Norwich or Esteban Cambiasso vs Serbia & Montenegro for a well-worked collective effort to be at that level.
Alessandro Deiola 🆚 Veneziapic.twitter.com/qldQLMH14I
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
6. Amr Nassr – Al Ahly vs PHARCO
As acrobatic efforts go, this is up there.
Up there in the top echelons of great overhead kicks, given the pace of the ball and how quickly he gets up.
But we’d be surprised if you don’t see a handful of comparable strikes across world football in any given 12-month period. It’s not quite Alejandro Garnacho’s.
Amr Nasser 🆚 Al Ahlypic.twitter.com/JE5CNVivRw
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
5. Declan Rice – ARSENAL vs Real Madrid
We suspect you might be looking at the 2025 Puskas Award winner, given this one involves Arsenal fans and an online vote.
It would be a more worthy winner than Mohamed Salah’s 2018 Merseyside derby goal, but we’re still not having it as the very best of the year.
Rice’s free-kick is superb, somehow even better than the sumptuous first he scored that night, but a free-kick surely has to be truly out-of-this-world spectacular to win this award – like Ronaldo’s rocket against Porto or Mohd Faiz Subri’s physics-defying effort in 2016.
Given the stage, against the reigning European champions, this is a goal that instantly goes into Arsenal folklore and will be remembered for decades to come. That’s recognition enough.
🎯 𝑴𝑨𝑱𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑼𝑶𝑺𝑶 golpeo de Declan Rice #UCL pic.twitter.com/zg54AruNZT
— Liga de Campeones (@LigadeCampeones) April 10, 2025
4. Kevin Rodrigues – KASIMPASA vs Rizespor
One of the most satisfying volleys of a football you’ll ever see.
Can you even imagine how good it would feel to watch this ball drop and catch this perfectly?
Trendyol Süper Lig’de şubat ayının en güzel golü, sosyal medya hesaplarımızda yaptığımız anketler sonucunda sizin oylarınızla belli oldu. 𝐊𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬💫 pic.twitter.com/7phkc8WBcS
— Trendyol Süper Lig (@superlig) March 1, 2025
3. Santiago Montiel – INDEPENDIENTE vs Independiente Rivadavia
The lesser-known cousin of Argentina’s World Cup-winning hero Gonzalo Montiel, the Independiente winger earned some headlines for this outstanding overhead kick.
This is a wonderfully audacious effort, but it’s not quite as far out as Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s 2013 winner. We’re not accepting one Puskas award winner being a pale imitation of another.
Santiago Montiel 🆚 Independiente Rivadaviapic.twitter.com/pzVCS8kdna
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
2. Pedro de la Vega – Cruz Azul vs SEATTLE SOUNDERS
The technique on this. Just outrageous.
He could attempt this a hundred more times and we’re absolutely certain he wouldn’t pull this off anywhere near as well.
There’s a really unromantic, joy-killing way of quantifying that by checking the xG value. But rather than do that, we’re just going to watch this 10 more times in a row.
Pedro de la Vega vs Cruz Azul, insane technique. pic.twitter.com/lJC6280R3w
— Dan Critchlow (@afcDW) November 14, 2025
1. Carlos Orrienta – Queretaro vs ATLAS
A Puskas award winner should take your breath away. Step forward, Carlos Orrienta.
This award didn’t exist when Tony Yeboah struck that goal against Wimbledon, but that surely would’ve claimed it in 1995.
Justice for Tony. Orrienta’s goal might just be the closest thing we’ve seen in the 30 years since.
It’s a bit more measured, and doesn’t have the same f*ck-off bloody-mindedness, but the impudent skill to juggle the ball before lashing it home is a thing of beauty.
Carlos Orrantia 🆚 Queretaropic.twitter.com/TKQUpME5Ct
— De Marke Sports (@demarkesports) November 13, 2025
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