Santiago Montiel flew in the air, defying the laws of physics, before launching an exceptional “scissors” shot with his left foot from outside the penalty area, to score against Independiente Rivadavia during the match between the two teams in the Argentine professional league in May 2025.

Santiago Montiel (25 years old), cousin of Gonzalo Montiel, World Cup champion with Argentina, commented on the goal, saying: “I didn’t think much, I just shot the ball.”

Santiago Montiel entered the competition alongside ten prominent candidates, becoming the second Argentine player in a row to win the award, after Alejandro Garnacho, winner of the 2024 edition. The award bears the name of Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas, and is given in honor of the most beautiful goals scored during the evaluation period extending from August 11, 2024 to August 2, 2025.

The mechanism for determining the winner of the FIFA Puskas Award for the most beautiful goal:

The two main voting categories voted for this award: Fans and FIFA Legends – on the initial list of 10 goals, with each voter choosing 3 places: 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Five points are awarded to the first-place finisher in each voting procedure, three points to the second-place finisher, and one point to the third-place finisher.

The vote contribution is divided equally between the two voting categories (Fans and FIFA Legends) with each category receiving 50% of the total number of points from voters, regardless of the number of voters participating in the process.

The Puskas Award is awarded to the person with the highest number of points out of the total.

The voting process for the FIFA Puskas Award for the Most Beautiful Goal was monitored by independent observers.

Source: fifa.com