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All the 2025 Puskas and Marta Award nominee goals

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All the 2025 Puskas and Marta Award nominee goals


FIFA has announced the contenders for the 2025 Puskas and Marta Awards, bestowed upon the scorer of the most beautiful goal notched in both men’s and women’s football, respectively, between Aug. 11, 2024, and Aug. 2, 2025 (inclusive) and part of The Best FIFA Football Awards gala held in Switzerland every January.

The Puskas Award had previously encompassed beautiful goals scored by anyone, anywhere in both men’s and women’s football (with the only stipulation being that the goal must have been scored on camera), but 2024 saw the launch of the inaugural Marta Award, which the eponymous Brazilian icon then went and won herself.

Indeed, Marta is once again on the short list for her own award this year, with the winners of the two awards determined by an equal split between the fan votes and those cast by an in-house panel of FIFA experts.

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The shortlisted goals have all been selected by FIFA and are plucked from a diverse array of competitions around the world, both domestic and international.

Last year’s Puskas Award was claimed by then-Manchester United forward Alejandro Garnacho for his bicycle kick against Everton, with five of the past eight awards being won by goals scored in the English Premier League. However, previous recent winners have also hailed from the Brazilian second tier, the Malaysian Super League and even Polish Amputee football.

There are some big names on both shortlists for 2025 with Lamine Yamal and Declan Rice vying for the men’s award, while Vivianne Miedema, Mariona Caldentey and Marta are in with a shout of taking the women’s prize.

Without further ado, here is a list of the 11 contenders on the 2025 Puskas Award shortlist for the men, presented in alphabetical order.

Alerrandro | Vitoria vs. Cruzeiro | Aug. 19, 2024

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With Vitoria already a goal ahead against Brazilian Serie A rivals Cruzeiro, Alerrandro was able to adapt quickly to a partially cut-out cross, spin on his heels and find the far top corner with a brilliant improvised overhead volley.

Alessandro Deiola | Cagliari vs. Venezia | May 18, 2025

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Cagliari were able to play their way out of the corner with a quick, clever interlaced passing maneuver finished with aplomb by Deiola, who sent a perfect curling finish past the Venezia goalkeeper from an acute angle to round off a 3-0 victory.

Pedro de la Vega | Seattle Sounders vs. Cruz Azul | July 31, 2025

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The Sounders thrashed Cruz Azul in the 2025 Leagues Cup, with the goal of the game being De la Vega’s outrageous first-time volley from the edge of the box that he skillfully guided beyond the stranded goalkeeper.

Santiago Montiel | Independiente vs. Independiente Rivadavia | May 11, 2025

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Montiel scored the only goal of the game to win this Argentine Apertura clash for Independiente, and in some style via an enormous 25-yard overhead kick that sailed back over the goalkeeper and sent the stadium into raptures.

Amr Nasser | Pharco vs. Al Ahly | April 17, 2025

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Pharco striker Amr Nasser pulled off a lightning-fast bicycle kick to find the net against Al Ahly in the Egyptian Capital Cup.

Carlos Orrantía | Atlas vs. Querétaro | April 16, 2025

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Orrantia opened the scoring for Atlas in what proved to be a 2-1 victory over Queretaro in the Mexican Clausura back in April. After the goalkeeper had only partially cleared a looping cross, the fullback skillfully juggled his way past a defender before sending a perfect volley into the top corner.

Declan Rice | Arsenal vs. Real Madrid | April 8, 2025

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Perhaps the most high-profile goal on the men’s shortlist belongs to Rice, whose sumptuously struck free kick against Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of last season’s Champions League is among the favorites to claim the Award.

Lucas Ribeiro | Mamelodi Sundowns v. Borussia Dortmund | June 21, 2025

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The first goal in what transpired to be a lively 4-3 defeat for the Sundowns at the Club World Cup, Ribeiro got things up and running after picking up possession in his own half and embarked on a powerful, direct charge up the center of the pitch, outpacing several Dortmund defenders before drumming a precise finish past the goalkeeper.

Rizky Ridho | Persija Jakarta v. Arema | March 9, 2025

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With a run that started on his own goal line, Persija captain Ridho sprinted up the touchline to latch onto a pass before spotting Arema goalkeeper out of position and sending a shot over his head from the halfway line.

Kévin Rodrigues | Kasimpasa v. Rizespor | Feb. 9, 2025

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With the first goal of the game in a 3-2 Turkish Super Lig win for Kasimpasa, Rodrigues found himself directly underneath a headed clearance which he duly volleyed back into the far top corner from 25 yards out.

Lamine Yamal | Barcelona vs. Espanyol | May 15, 2025

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Yamal put Barcelona on the road to a straightforward 2-0 win over local rivals Espanyol, cutting in from the right flank and bending an unstoppable finish into the top corner.

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Espanyol vs. Barcelona – Game Highlights

Watch the Game Highlights from Espanyol vs. Barcelona, 05/15/2025


And here are 11 contenders on the 2025 Marta Award shortlist for the women, also presented in alphabetical order.

Jordyn Bugg | Seattle Reign vs. North Carolina Courage | March 22, 2025

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Center back Bugg notched what proved to be the winning goal in a 2-1 victory for the Reign when she collected a high defensive clearance, controlled it perfectly and then torpedoed a long-range strike into the top corner from 30 yards.

Mariona Caldentey | Arsenal vs. OL Lyonnes | April 27, 2025

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With halftime looming in the Women’s Champions League semifinals, Arsenal star Caldentey doubled the club’s lead with a perfectly judged long-range effort. The Gunners would go on to win 4-1 against Lyon to wrap up a 5-3 aggregate victory, before going onto winning the tournament outright against Barcelona.

Ashley Cheatley | Brentford vs. Ascot United | Nov. 3, 2024

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The Women’s FA Cup tie was graced by a wonderful virtuoso volley from Cheatley, who had to juggle her way out of an awkward position, flick it over the head of her marker and then score from eight yards with an acrobatic finish.

Kyra Cooney-Cross | Australia vs. Germany | Oct. 28, 2024

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Australia came from behind and mustered a shock 2-1 win over Germany in an international friendly as Cooney-Cross set the tone for the upset by equalizing with a mammoth lob from 50 yards out.

Jon Ryong-jong | Korea DPR vs. Argentina | Sept. 2, 2024

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North Korea trounced Argentina 6-2 in the group stage of the Women’s U20 World Cup with Ryong-jong registering the best goal of the rout just 10 minutes in with this 25-yard strike.

Marta | Orlando Pride vs. Kansas City Current | Nov. 17, 2024

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Marta reacts to epic solo goal in NWSL playoff semifinals

Marta speaks after her goal helped Orlando Pride defeat KC Current in the NWSL playoff semifinals.

Aiming for her second Marta Award in succession, the 39-year-old Brazilian veteran is in with a strong shout thanks to this solo effort against the Current, in which she sprinted into the area, feinted past two defenders, then the goalkeeper before nonchalantly rolling the ball into an empty net.

Vivianne Miedema | Netherlands vs. Wales | July 5, 2025

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Miedema scored her 100th international goal for Netherlands with a fitting flourish against Wales, nimbly rolling the ball onto her left, then rolling it back onto her right to flummox the defense before hitting the net with an arching strike from 20 yards out.

Kishi Núñez | Argentina vs. Costa Rica | Sept. 8, 2024

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Another one from the group stage of the Women’s U20 World Cup saw Nunez wriggle away from a small cluster of Costa Rica defenders before launching a superb long-range finish from 40 yards out.

Lizbeth Ovalle | Tigres vs. Guadalajara | March 3, 2025

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It’s little surprise that Ovalle went viral with her inventive airborne volley against Guadalajara in the Mexican Liga MX Femenil thanks to an unorthodox technique that was subsequently dubbed “The Shrimp” — for obvious reasons.

Ally Sentnor | USA vs. Colombia | Feb. 20, 2025

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The USWNT beat Colombia 2-0 in its opening game at the 2025 SheBelieves Cup with the decisive goal coming from Sentnor, who darted into a pocket of space before smashing a powerful shot into the top corner from distance.

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw | Manchester City vs. Hammarby | Nov. 21, 2024

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Shaw became City’s all-time top goal scorer in the Champions League with two goals in a 2-1 win against Hammarby. After a surging dribble from Jess Park saw City advance, Shaw took possession on the edge of the area, cut away from her marker and rocketed a shot into the top corner.



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College watchdog group nixed 500-plus NIL deals

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College watchdog group nixed 500-plus NIL deals


The College Sports Commission has rejected nearly $15 million in name, image and likeness agreements since it started evaluating them over the summer, representing more than 10% of the value of all the deals it has analyzed and closed.

The CSC released its latest statistics Monday, saying it did not clear 524 deals worth $14.94 million, while clearing 17,321 worth $127.21 million. All the data was current as of Jan. 1.

The numbers came against the backdrop of a “reminder” memo the commission sent to athletic directors last week, citing “serious concerns” about contracts being offered to athletes before they had been cleared through the commission’s NIL Go platform.

The CSC is in charge of evaluating all deals worth more than $600 that are offered by third-party businesses that are often affiliated with the schools recruiting the players.

“Without prejudging any particular deal, the CSC has serious concerns about some of the deal terms being contemplated and the consequences of those deals for the parties involved,” the Friday night memo said.

The CSC said primary reasons for deals not being cleared were that they lacked a valid business purpose; they didn’t directly activate a player’s NIL rights, instead “warehousing” them for future use; and that players were being paid at levels that weren’t “commensurate with similarly situated individuals.”

The memo reminded ADs that signing players to deals that hadn’t been cleared by the CSC left the players “vulnerable to deals not being cleared, promises not being able to be kept, and eligibility being placed at risk.”

Other statistics from the latest report:

There were 10 deals in arbitration as of Dec. 31, eight of which have since been withdrawn. All involved a resolved administrative issue at one school not named by the CSC.

• 52% of deals submitted to NIL Go were resolved within 24 hours.

• 73% of deals reached resolution within seven days following submission of all required information.

• 56% of the 10,848 athletes who have at least one cleared deal play football or men’s basketball.



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Alonso wasn’t perfect, but sacking him ignores Madrid’s real problems

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Alonso wasn’t perfect, but sacking him ignores Madrid’s real problems


So, Xabi Alonso becomes the tenth permanent Real Madrid manager of Florentino Pérez’s 21-plus-year presidential reign to be sacked without even completing a year in charge.

Just when the 44-year-old Madrid playing legend seemed to have calmed the stormy waters that had threatened to overwhelm him since autumn, the biggest sin in the entire dictionary of Must Not Commit for Bernabéu managers, losing to Barcelona when a trophy is at stake, has cost him his job. Those around Alonso — who leaves with Madrid only four points off the top of LaLiga, safely in the UEFA Champions League top eight and with a nervy Copa del Rey tie at Albacete on Wednesday — will look back at the final moments of Sunday’s Supercopa final and think about Álvaro Carreras and Raúl Asencio, who each had point-blank chances to score and take the final to penalties.

Alonso, in retrospect, stands condemned, at least in the eyes of Pérez — the only person whose opinion matters when a coach’s fate is concerned — of several offenses.

First: The damage done to Alonso’s public reputation and club credibility when, on substituting Vinícius Júnior in the victorious Clásico last October, the Brazil international erupted in anger while showing disrespect for his manager. Even in victory, the player’s actions hogged the headlines because he screamed into the night air, “This is why I’m going to leave this team. This is why I’m leaving!”

Pérez wants Vinícius to renew his contract, at all costs. So although Alonso palpably repaired much of the damage with his 24-year-old star, and on Sunday helped him produce his best goal and best performance since Carlo Ancelotti left, it’s now clear that irreparable damage was done to Pérez’s view of his coach.

Second: Losing to Barcelona in a big final remains, it seems, a capital offense. Just as a reminder, it has been about five weeks since I wrote in this very space, “If the 44-year-old coach, who won all there is to win in his playing career and then made history by making Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga champions for the first time, can beat Atlético Madrid in the Supercopa semifinal and either Barcelona or Athletic Club in the final, then he’ll finally be left alone to do his job until the end of the season. But to come home without a trophy? Alonso will almost certainly be sacked.”

Third: When Madrid played anodyne, point-dropping football against Rayo Vallecano, Elche and Girona, and then lost consecutively at home to Manchester City and Celta Vigo, there was a massive manhunt mounted, by the club and by the media, to find someone to blame. Correctly or not, and I think the answer is firmly “not,” it has been the coach — rather than the president or the players — who has been found guilty.

Fourth: Alonso, it must be said, hasn’t “played the game.” Managing upward is an increasingly key skill when you’re coaching at a big club — that’s true anywhere in the world, but particularly when your direct boss is the unaccountable Pérez.

Throughout his life, either as the son of the excellent player Periko Alonso; or while coming through the ranks at Real Sociedad; playing brilliantly for Liverpool, Madrid, Bayern Munich and Spain; or making history by taking Bayer Leverkusen to their best-ever trophy season; Xabi Alonso has been the man. Venerated, respected, ultra talented, backed, fêted, desired, rewarded and awarded deity status. Don’t take my word for it, just think how he’s regarded by Spain (European and world champion), at Liverpool (hero of the greatest match in their entire history), local boy made good at Real Sociedad, José Mourinho’s lieutenant at Madrid and Pep Guardiola’s chosen linchpin while winning trophy after trophy at Bayern. He simply didn’t need to kowtow to anyone. Ever.

It’s different at Madrid and, so, when his friend and mentor, Guardiola, used a vulgar expression in support of Alonso before City won at the Bernabéu in December, it went down very badly indeed when Alonso’s postmatch response, teased out by a journalist, seemed to be sympathetic to what City’s Catalan coach was suggesting about Alonso’s relationship with Pérez.

Until very recently, Alonso, never rude, was standoffish and cool with the assembled, hard-nosed, some would say Pérez-aligned media who turned up to news conferences six times a week at the Madrid training ground. He changed his stance when he knew he was fighting for his continued employment: He began to expand on answers, share a joke, become a bit more touchy-feely, and it was working. But he played that game a little too late.

It was extremely telling when Alonso suggested to his players on Sunday in Jeddah that they form a guard of honor for Barcelona’s victorious players (as Hansi Flick’s men had done for them while they walked up to get their losers’ medals), but Kylian Mbappé usurped him and fiercely gestured to the squad that he, not Alonso, had the final word and that no way would they be forming two lines and letting the Supercopa winners feel honored. Very, very damaging imagery.

What’s a little bit shocking is that the Spanish football media, having set the table for an Alonso sacking over and over again in November and December, were utterly caught by surprise. Even playing pretty moderately, in victory against Sevilla, Real Betis and Atlético, Madrid’s players were clearly pulling for their coach, they were building results — admittedly from a low base — and they were looking very like steering Los Blancos into the extremely valuable top eight of the Champions League with two winnable matches in their sights this month. Marca’s headlines this morning included “Xabi revives the Mourinho style” and “What a miss from Carreras in the 95th minute.” No blame thrown at the coach. Their famous columnist, Alfredo Relaño, stated, “Xabi Alonso lost the final but saved his situation.” The much more hawkish, Pérez-oriented Diario AS used “Only Raphinha was better than Madrid” as their match headline, and the self-confessed ultra-Madridista columnist Tomás Roncero’s column read “Nothing to reproach you over.”

One of the biggest signs, in my opinion, as to the general mood of this singular, polemic, but highly successful, billionaire president, and something that Alonso could have paid more attention to, is the name of the stadium.

For the longest time, it’s been called the Santiago Bernabéu in honor of the man previously regarded as the greatest leader in Real Madrid’s history. More and more, and often in formal terms, it’s being called “the Bernabéu” — a change that, in my view, will preface a gradual, strategic and corporate-driven moving of Pérez toward the top of the podium of all-time presidents. This 78-year-old has, gradually but consistently, aimed at moving beyond his “Primus inter pares” (“first among equals”) status to be regarded as the all-time greatest. His costly and, so far, not wholly successful redevelopment of the stadium was supposed to be the jewel in the crown but, for a host of reasons, hasn’t hit home with the power he expected it to. I think, a couple of months away from his 79th birthday, he feels that time is flying, and he has none to waste.

He needs, desires, more league wins, more Champions Leagues, fewer sights of Barcelona lifting trophies, less whistling and jeering when Madrid play at their imperious HQ. He craves the formation of a European Super League. Right now, he’s being thwarted in too many of those desires.

Those previous nine coaches he sacked only a few months into their reigns usually, it must be pointed out, made way for more successful, more glorious periods for the club as European and domestic trophies were stacked up and the best players actively chose to move to Real Madrid. This fact is incontestable.

President Pérez, in my opinion, has blamed the wrong man, has ignored the real problems and, now that he has passed the baton to Álvaro Arbeloa, he has perpetuated the real flaws rather than cured them in sacking Alonso. But he won’t care about that opinion and, in the past, his irresistible force has defeated any apparently immovable object. This time? I’m unconvinced.

Bad luck, Xabi. You only partially contributed to this situation. But, as you always said yourself, Real Madrid is different. Real Madrid is unique. Good luck with what comes next.



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Ex-NFL player missing for 7 months, sister says

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Ex-NFL player missing for 7 months, sister says


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The sister of former New York Giants defensive back Sam Beal pleaded with the public for help finding her brother who has been missing for about seven months.

Essence Zhane took to her Facebook page on Monday to ask anyone who may have seen Beal to contact the Kentwood Police Department in Virginia.

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A picture of Sam Beal uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) in October 2025. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs))

“Tomorrow makes it 7 months since we’ve last heard from or seen my brother,” she wrote on social media. “We’ve done everything we could on our end to piece things together and at this point we’re in desperate need of support on all ends. I’m not here to answer a bunch of why’s and how’s I just need this to land in the right direction to gain some form of answers or closure.

“I’m a Big sister and I need my brother to know that We Love You and miss you and this has been a heavy feeling for months to carry around.”

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database said the last time Beal had contact with loved ones was back on July 13, 2025. He is missing from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

He’s described as having black hair with a muscular and athletic build with brown eyes.

Beal’s girlfriend was the last one to see the former NFL player. He dropped her off at her family’s home and was supposed to head to work. However, Beal headed toward Virginia Beach. His girlfriend said the last time she heard from him, he said he was going back home.

Sam Beal in 2019

New York Giants cornerback Sam Beal talks to reporters after the first Giants OTA on Monday, May 19, 2019, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com)

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“Samuel did not bring anything with him aside from the clothes he was wearing, a pair of slides, and his wallet that contained his banking card and driver’s license,” a description of his disappearance in the database read. “The girlfriend’s vehicle was recovered in Virginia Beach, VA by one of her family members. The vehicle was found with Samuel’s shoes and socks on the floor of the front passenger seat along with some sand on the floor.”

Beal was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and attended high school in the state. He went to Western Michigan before the Giants took him in the 2018 NFL Supplemental Draft.

He played in games with the Giants, including starting three games for them during his rookie season in 2019. He missed the entire 2020 season due to a COVID-19 opt-out.

Sam Beal takes on the Jets

New York Giants cornerback Sam Beal (23) warms up before his Giants debut against the New York Jets on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Danielle Parhizkaran/NorthJersey.com, North Jersey Record via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

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Beal pleaded guilty to gun charges before the 2021 season and was placed on probation for a year.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.





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