In extra time at Miami Gardens he went past Alexis Mac Allister and curled the ball over Emiliano Martínez into the far top corner for 2-2. Argentina won 3-2, but the 23-year-old's goal topped the final fan vote from a 12-goal shortlist.
Sidny Lopes Cabral, the newest of the Goal of the Tournament winners, had already beaten Alexis Mac Allister when he looked up. The curler that followed, over Emiliano Martínez and into the far top corner in extra time at Miami Gardens, did not save Cape Verde, who lost 3-2 to Argentina in the round of 32. It did win the vote. Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Julián Álvarez all had goals on FIFA’s shortlist for 2026, and a 23-year-old defender from Cape Verde beat them.
That pattern runs through the history of the Goal of the Tournament. The award is about one strike, not about who won the trophy, and the winners list is full of players who scored once and went home early.
FIFA first put the question to fans after the 2006 World Cup, and Maxi Rodríguez’s extra-time volley for Argentina against Mexico in Leipzig became the first winner. Since then the World Cup award has gone to Diego Forlán (2010), James Rodríguez (2014), Benjamin Pavard (2018), Richarlison (2022) and Cabral (2026). Pavard was the World Cup award’s first European winner; four of the six goals came from South American players.
The EURO has a shorter record. UEFA ran a fans’ poll in 2012, which Zlatan Ibrahimović won with 39.9% for his volley against France. From 2016 the technical observers also rank the best goals, so a tournament can end with two answers. In 2016 fans chose Zoltán Gera’s half-volley for Hungary against Portugal with 32%. In 2024 the observers placed Lamine Yamal’s semi-final goal against France first, while the fans’ vote went to Mert Müldür’s volley for Türkiye against Georgia.
The full list of Goal of the Tournament winners, with match, round and how each goal went in, is on the World Cup and EURO pages.
Look at the winners together and three kinds of goal keep coming back. Volleys, first of all: Maxi Rodríguez, Forlán, James, Ibrahimović and Müldür all hit the ball before it touched the ground. Then acrobatics, Richarlison’s scissor kick against Serbia above all. Then distance, which is where EURO 2020 belongs.
The EURO 2020 Goal of the Tournament went to Patrik Schick, who saw David Marshall off his line in Glasgow and shot from 49.7 yards. Opta recorded it as the longest goal at a European Championship since 1980. Nearly 800,000 votes came in within about a day, and the winner of the EURO 2020 Goal of the Tournament also received a digital trophy, an NFT designed by the artist Pokras Lampas for an official sponsor of that tournament.
What the best goals rarely are is decisive. Forlán’s came in a third-place play-off. Pavard’s equalised in a game France won 4-3, and Cabral’s still ended in defeat. Voters reward the strike itself, and you can usually see why within the first replay.
Both awards start with a shortlist and end with a public vote. FIFA does not publish how its shortlist is drawn up; it said the 2018 list held 18 goals and the 2026 list 12, chosen from 308. UEFA’s observers, a panel of former coaches and players, watch every match and then vote together. The Puskás Award, given every year since 2009, mixes a FIFA Legends panel with fans at equal weight.
There is a separate page on how the vote works, including the 2026 change to round-by-round polls before the final ballot. Of the winners of those phase polls, Erling Haaland’s goal against Brazil took 34% in the round of 16 and still finished behind Cabral at the end.
A left-footed volley from Juan Pablo Sorín's cross in the first half of extra time at 1-1, played in Leipzig on 24 June 2006. It put Argentina into the quarter-finals and made Rodríguez the first winner of FIFA's fan vote.
A volley in the third-place play-off against Germany, a match Uruguay went on to lose 3-2. The fan vote went to a goal from the tournament's final weekend.
A chest control with his back to goal, a turn and a volley from outside the area. The same goal also won FIFA's Puskás Award for 2014, the only double of its kind.
A half-volley struck with the outside of the right foot that levelled the game at 2-2 in Kazan. France won 4-3. Over three million votes made Pavard the World Cup award's first European winner.
Vinícius Júnior's outside-foot cross, a touch to lift the ball and a scissor kick in the 73rd minute for 2-0. FIFA announced it on 23 December 2022 as the goal fans voted for most.
On the front page: Sidny Lopes Cabral.
A volley in the 54th minute of Sweden's 2-0 win over France. In UEFA's fan poll it took 39.9% of the vote, ahead of Jordi Alba's goal in the final.
A first-time half-volley from outside the area in the 3-3 draw with Portugal. Gera won the fans' vote with 32%, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (24%) and Xherdan Shaqiri (23%).
Seeing the goalkeeper off his line, Schick shot from 49.7 yards, about 45 metres, in Glasgow on 14 June 2021: the longest goal at a EURO since records began in 1980. Nearly 800,000 votes were cast in about a day.
His goal in Spain's 2-1 semi-final win on 9 July 2024 made him, at 16 years and 362 days, the youngest scorer in EURO history. UEFA's technical observers ranked it first; the fans' poll went to Mert Müldür.
A volley on matchday one, 18 June 2024, in Türkiye's 3-1 win over Georgia. It topped the fans' vote, with Lamine Yamal second and Arda Güler third.
FIFA's goal of the year, named after the Hungarian forward Ferenc Puskás and given since 2009. It runs over a whole season at every level, which is how a goal from the Polish amputee league and a free kick from Malaysia ended up next to Cristiano Ronaldo and Mohamed Salah.
The 2025 award went to Santiago Montiel of Independiente for an overhead kick from outside the box.
All Puskás Award winnersAt the World Cup it is a public vote on FIFA's website, held on a shortlist after the tournament; in 2026 FIFA picked 12 goals from 308. At the EURO, UEFA's technical observers draw up a top ten and fans vote as well, and in 2024 the two came to different answers; most accounts say the same of 2016.
Yes. Benjamin Pavard was a 22-year-old right-back when his outside-of-the-foot half-volley against Argentina won the 2018 World Cup vote, and Sidny Lopes Cabral, a defender with Cape Verde, won in 2026.
The Goal of the Tournament covers one competition, a World Cup or a EURO. The Puskás Award covers a whole year of football at any level, and today it is decided half by a panel of FIFA Legends and half by fans.
Patrik Schick's goal for the Czech Republic against Scotland at EURO 2020, measured at 49.7 yards, about 45 metres. It is the longest goal at a European Championship since records began in 1980.
Once. James Rodríguez's volley against Uruguay at the 2014 World Cup won the Goal of the Tournament and then the Puskás Award for 2014.