Daniel Zsóri’s incredible goal for Debrecen against Ferencvaros in his debut match for the club proved to be the most aesthetically pleasing or in other words, the most beautiful goal of the year, which earned him the FIFA Puskás Award for 2019 ahead of Lionel Messi and Juan Fernando Quintero.
Image source: twitter.com
FIFA Puskás Award is an award established in October 2009 by FIFA to award players (male or female), who have scored the most beautiful goal of the calendar year. The award was created in honour of Ferenc Puskás, who was and still is considered to be one of the best forwards in Europe, having scored then record-breaking 84 goals in 85 international fixtures for his side, Hungary. While deceased, Puskás’ 746 goals in 754 fixtures make him the fourth most successful goal scorer in the history of football.
This year marked the 11th edition of Puskás Award and the first time in history the award went to a Hungarian player, seeing how it was Daniel Zsóri who edged past both Lionel Messi and Juan Fernando Quintero to scoop the award for the most beautiful goal of 2019.
Who is Daniel Zsóri?
The 18-year old Romania-born Hungarian centre forward is most likely one of the football players most of us never heard about before, yet he made sure he will gain recognition in the football world with his incredible award-winning goal. Daniel Zsóri started his football career in 2015 when he moved up from Békéscsaba Youth squad to join U17 team in the same club. Next year, he found himself transferred to Debrecen U17. From there he worked his way up to U19, Debrecen II and finally in January of 2019, he got a chance to wear the jersey of the senior Debrecen team.
Daniel Zsóri incredible goal
February 16, 2019, marked the debut day for Daniel Zsóri professional football career when he got a chance to represent Debrecen in Hungarian top-flight fixture against Ferencvaros. Zsóri entered the match as a substitute in 81st minute when his team was 0-1. Two minutes later his team got awarded a penalty, which they converted into a goal, meaning the teams were tied at 1-1 with only seven minutes to go. A fierce battle started with both teams doing their best to score a goal and win the highly important fixture, yet there was no sign of any team having what it takes to push through and win. Daniel Zsóri, however, had other ideas and scored an impressive overhead goal in the dying moments of the match (90’+3) to not only secure an upset win for his team but also score his first goal in his pro career on his debut day.
Little did he know, however, that his goal would be recognised as the most beautiful goal in the world at The Best FIFA Football Awards, which took place this Monday, September 23 at Teatro Alla Scala, Milan, Italy.
What is even more impressive is that fact that his goal was deemed more eye-pleasing than that of one of football’s all-time greats, Lionel Messi, who produced a stellar goal against Real Betis, where he managed to lob the ball over the head of Paul Lopez from outside the box.
Third in line to claim the Puskás Award was River’s Quintero who scored a breath-taking long-range free-kick goal against Racing Club.
Yet even his goal was not deemed as aesthetically pleasing as the goal of Daniel Zsóri, who humbly claimed the award this Monday in Milano and thanked his friends, family, teammates and club, who helped him become the first-ever Hungarian player to claim the award.
What does the future hold in store for this young Hungarian player and his career is yet to be seen, but seeing how he gained a lot of attention winning the Puskás Award, we can safely assume the recognition he got can only help him and his football career.
