The Greatest Goals Ever Scored

Every football fan carries a private list of the greatest goals, and no two lists are the same. Some goals are remembered for pure skill, some for the stage they were scored on, and some because of what they meant to the people watching.

There is one goal that appears on almost every list, though, and an official award that has tried since 2009 to name the best goal of each year. Between them, they show what turns a goal into a legend.

The goal of the century

On 22 June 1986, in the quarter-final of the World Cup at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Argentina played England. Four years after the Falklands War, the match carried far more than sport. In the 51st minute Diego Maradona put Argentina ahead with a goal he punched in with his hand, later calling it the Hand of God.

About four minutes later he scored the other goal the world remembers. Collecting the ball in his own half, he ran about 60 yards in roughly ten seconds, past Peter Beardsley, Peter Reid, Terry Butcher, Terry Fenwick and Butcher again, feinted around the goalkeeper Peter Shilton and walked the ball into an empty net. Argentina won 2-1 and went on to win the tournament.

Voted the best

In 2002 an online poll on FIFA's website named it the Goal of the Century. Michael Owen's solo goal for England against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup came second, and another Maradona goal from 1986, against Belgium in the semi-final, came fourth.

In Spanish-speaking countries the goal is inseparable from the live radio commentary of the Uruguayan journalist Víctor Hugo Morales, whose cries of disbelief as Maradona ran became almost as famous as the goal itself. The two goals in the same match, one of the most shameless and one of the most beautiful, are part of why the game is still discussed forty years on.

What makes a goal great

Maradona's goal combines the three things that most often lift a goal above the rest. The first is difficulty: beating several defenders at full speed while keeping control of the ball. The second is the stage, a World Cup knockout match watched around the world. The third is meaning, here a match loaded with national feeling.

Remove any one of those, and the same goal would be admired but not remembered in the same way. A brilliant solo run in a friendly is a highlight; the same run in a World Cup quarter-final against a bitter rival becomes history.

An award for beauty

Since 2009 FIFA has tried to judge goals on beauty alone. The Puskás Award, established on 20 October 2009 and named after the great Hungarian and Real Madrid striker Ferenc Puskás, honours the most aesthetically significant goal of the calendar year. The rules say the goal should be beautiful, scored without luck or a defensive mistake, and judged regardless of the competition or the scorer's nationality.

FIFA nominates eleven goals, then fans voting on its website and a panel of former players each pick their top three, and the points are combined. The first award, in December 2009, went to Cristiano Ronaldo for a long-range strike for Manchester United against Porto. From 2024 the award is for men only, with a separate award named after Marta for goals in the women's game.

Overhead kicks and volleys

Some of the most celebrated winners show how much the award prizes technique. In 2013 Zlatan Ibrahimović won for an overhead kick for Sweden against England from far outside the area, a goal the BBC praised for combining unfathomable imagination and expert technique. In 2014 James Rodríguez won for a volley at the World Cup in Brazil.

The overhead kick, also called a bicycle kick, is a favourite of these awards because it is so rarely attempted in a match and even more rarely works: the player leaps with his back to goal and strikes the ball over his own head.

The goals that matter most to fans

No award can capture the goals that matter most to supporters, which are often scrappy, late and against a rival. A deflected winner in a derby or a last-minute equaliser in a cup final can mean more to a club's fans than any long-range screamer, and the clubs' own histories are built from such moments.

Some of the greatest goals in our coverage are remembered for what they won rather than how they looked; the story of Leicester's 5000-to-1 title was built on many ordinary ones. Others belong to great individual seasons, like Ronaldo's one year at Barcelona.

Arguing about the list

The argument over the greatest goal will never be settled, and that is part of the fun. Polls favour recent goals and big tournaments; older fans remember goals that were never filmed well; awards reward spectacular technique over meaning. Each list says as much about who made it as about the goals.

Maradona's run is the closest the game has to a consensus, because it scores on every count at once: skill, stage and story. For the tournament that gave it its stage, see our short history of the World Cup.