In football, beautiful goals are scored every year, but some become iconic. Players do wonders with the ball: we’ve put together a selection of five goals that fans especially loved.
Cristiano Ronaldo (2019)
Jumping Cristiano Ronaldo has become his calling card. The Portuguese often scores with his head, and Sampdoria’s goal in 2019 from a height of 256 centimeters gave rise to a worldwide challenge — people hung the ball up and tried to reach it.
In 2022, Moroccan national team striker Youssef En-Nesyri broke Ronaldo’s record — before his eyes. He scored the only goal in the World Cup quarter-finals, eliminating Portugal with Cristiano on the field. The Moroccan forward jumped to a height of 2.76 meters and headed the ball into the net.
Roberto Carlos (1998)
On February 21, 1998, Real Madrid player Roberto Carlos scored one of the most beautiful goals of his career.
The Brazilian crossed from the left flank, but the ball ended up in the net. The Tenerife goalkeeper didn’t seem to even understand how it happened! Many believe that Carlos scored by accident, which does not take away from the beauty of the goal — it flew into the net in an arc.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2012)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a legendary Swedish striker who has scored many beautiful goals throughout his career. But the goal against England in 2012 is considered one of the most incredible.
It was a friendly match: Ibrahimovic came out as captain and scored three goals. With the score 3:2 in favor of Sweden, in extra time, he created a masterpiece that will forever remain in history. After all, Ibrahimovic scored with an overhead kick from 30 meters!
Marcin Oleksi (2022)
Polish footballer Marcin Oleksi, who is missing his left leg, received the Puskas Award for the best goal of 2022.
Oleksi plays on crutches for Warta Poznań in the AMP Futbol Ekstraclasa, a tournament where all the outfield players are missing a leg and the goalkeepers have a missing or injured arm. In the match against Stal from Rzezhuwa, Oleksi scored a beautiful goal, shooting through himself.
“When my partner was just approaching the ball, I realized that the pass would go to me,” said Oleksi. — When I shot, I watched the whole time how the ball flew, how it flew into the corner. I always wanted to score beautifully. You saw how proud I was of this goal — I stood up straight and stuck out my chest. I was so happy!
Roberto Carlos (1997)
In June 1997, an international friendly tournament was held in France. Brazilian defender Roberto Carlos performed a real miracle in the first half of the game against the French in Lyon.
The Brazilian’s strong blow was known, but no one expected that he would violate the laws of physics. Running almost from the center of the field, Carlos powerfully hit with the outside of his foot — the ball picked up a speed of 198 (!) km/h, flew around the wall and flew into the gate. France goalkeeper Fabien Barthez didn’t even move.
“Honestly, I still don’t know how I did it. It was a beautiful goal that took a lot of training and hard work throughout my career. But the work paid off in the end — I scored a great goal, which became special for me,” recalled Roberto Carlos 20 years after the match with France.