Manchester United fans may well be bewildered that this year's Puskas Award for the best goal of 2023 has not gone to Alejandro Garnacho - and that he was not even nominated.
Garnacho channelled his inner Wayne Rooney by meeting Diogo Dalot's cross with a fabulous overhead kick just three minutes into a three-goal victory over Everton back on November 26.
Therein lies the answer to why the Manchester United star has not even been considered for the gong, which will be awarded on Monday evening at the abysmally-named Best FIFA Football Awards in London.
The awards this year are given out for the period from 19th December 2022 to 20th August 2023, with the bizarre eight-month period accounted for by FIFA's desire to include the 2022 World Cup for consideration in the last edition of the awards.
With final ballots cast on 6th October 2023, the voting for the award had been closed for seven and a half weeks by the time his wonder strike found the top corner.
You may wonder why, exactly, FIFA could not have made the so-called 2023 awards run up until the end of the year, and that's a fair question. Apparently they need three whole months to count the votes? If there was an award for awards shows, chances are slim they'd be taking home the prestigious Ballot d'Or.
Anyway, the nominees for the Puskas Award this year are in fact:
- Julio Enciso with a piledriver to the top corner from outside the box (Brighton vs Manchester City, 23rd May 2023)
- Guilherme Madruga with a ludicrous looping overhead kick from outside the box (Novorizontino v Botafogo, 27th June 2023)
- Nuno Santos with a textbook rabona from - gasp - inside the box (Sporting v Boavista, 12th March 2023)
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