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Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud secured FIFA’s Puskas award for goal of the year for his scorpion kick against Crystal Palace in January.
It’s hard to argue the voters’ choice. Following an excellent build up, he met Alexis Sanchez’s cross with a backheeled volley that beat goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and bounced in off the crossbar.
Interestingly enough, Giroud’s goal did not even win the Premier League’s goal of the month award in January as voters opted for West Ham’s Andy Carrol’s scissor kick instead.
On Monday, the Arsenal man finally got the recognition he deserved.
However, there were other worthy goals in the running, including South Africa’s Oscarine Masuluke’s audacious bicycle kick and Venezuelan striker Deyna Castellanos’ blast from the halfway line.
In fact, plenty of people felt that Masuluke’s goal should have won, as the already sublime quality of the goal was enhanced by the fact that Masuluke is a goalkeeper and scored in stoppage time.
In other news from the awards ceremony, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo took home the Best FIFA Men’s Player award for the second year in a row.
He beat out Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and PSG’s Neymar to claim the honour.
Ronaldo came away with a convincing 43.16% of the votes, while Messi was a distant second with 19.25%. The Real Madrid star has enjoyed an excellent year, which included leading his club to Champions League and La Liga titles.
Next, he’ll look to win the 2017 Ballon d’Or.
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