Summary

The FIFA Puskás Award is given yearly to the player who scores the "most beautiful" goal, with winners decided through votes.
Blue Lock Season 1 Puskás Award goes to Meguru Bachira for his stunning solo goal combining skill, control, awareness, and creativity.
Blue Lock series showcased a variety of exceptional goals, each highlighting different aspects of the game, ultimately crowning Bachira as the winner.

Blue Lock was the best-selling manga of 2023, and since its anime adaptation in 2022, the series has become immensely popular around the world. Earlier this year, the Blue Lock: Episode Nagi film was shown in theatres around the world, premiering in the US on June 28. Since it's a series about football, it's only customary for us to wonder what was the best goal scored in season 1.

With season 2 of the anime coming this fall, it's the perfect time for the Blue Lock Season 1 Puskás Award!

What's The FIFA Puskás Award?

The Greatest Goal Scored In a Calendar Year

Ferenc Puskas – Blue Lock Puskas Award The Greatest Goal Scored in Season 1

The Puskás gets its name from Hungarian football legend Ferenc Puskás (1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) who was widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. As a forward and attacking midfielder, Puskás scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary, and led his national side to the Olympic final in 1954. With a total of 806 goals in 793 games over the span of his career, Puskás is the 7th highest goalscorer in professional football history. The award was established in 2009 and is granted to the player judged to have scored the "most beautiful" or aesthetically pleasing goal of the calendar year. The winners are decided through votes, which were initially by fans until a controversy in 2018 saw the award be granted by pundits chosen by FIFA, who then choose the winner based on the top 3 goals voted for by fans. The award criteria set out to describe exactly what kind of goal qualifies, but in a nutshell:

the goal must be beautiful, and can include a wide range of goals that emphasize a different aspect of the game;
the award is given without bias against gender, nationality or distinction within the sport, so even if a player in a lower tier domestic league in a country that isn't known for its footballing talent scores "a worldie", that player is most definitely eligible;
It cannot be a scored through mistakes, deflection or luck and should support fair play, so goals scored through dirty play do not count;
A player can only be nominated for one goal.

The winners can be very controversial decisions, given how subjective the main criterion is, and some years, there will be nominees that the public deems to be better than the winner.

The Nominees

The Very Best in Blue Lock Season 1

The goals start very early on, given the premise of the Blue Lock programme being to find and nurture a world-class centre-forward for the Japanese national team. For the sake of minimizing the possibility of selection headaches, only six goals will be nominated, and none of the goals scored by the World Five in the last episode will count.

Barou Rainbow Flick to Nutmeg – Team Z vs Team X, Episode 3

Shouei Barou's introduction was intense, as is usually the case for characters voiced by Junichi Suwabe. As the self-proclaimed King of the football field, Barou's character is one of the first that catch Isagi's attention, and the first goal he scores in the Blue Lock series epitomizes Barou's football philosophy. During Team Z's match against Team X, the former were decimated by Barou, who opened the scoring with a brilliant dribble past a whole swarm of bodies and breaking through that featured a perfectly-executed rainbow flick over Isagi's head, followed by a cheeky nutmeg of last defender Naruhaya which gave him more than enough space to rifle the ball into the top-right corner.

Aesthetically, the goal was the prime example of the kind of spark that characterizes a world-class striker, showing the factors that make up his specific play – the physicality stemming from his thorough sculpting of his body, a paradoxical agility and ball control most larger players will lack, especially in the traditional understanding of the role of a centre-forward, and the confidence in front of goal needed to convert the chance.

Hibiki Ōkawa Chip – Team Y vs Team Z, Episode 4

During the match between Team Y and Team Z, Isagi's side was overwhelmed by the commanding presence of Ikki Niko, who held down the midfield for Team Y and was responsible for orchestrating their plays. Team Y's first goal came from a blocked shot from Kunigami, with the rebound falling to Niko, who floated an elegant through-ball from their side of play for Hibiki Ōkawa, who very quickly saw the intent and was available to bring the ball down with a great first-touch.

Their counterattack was complete when Ōkawa chipped the ball over the advancing goalkeeper, Iemon, allowing the ball to gently caress the net as Team Z looked on in horror. The best thing about this goal is how it showcases the chemistry between Niko and Ōkawa; a brilliantly floated through-ball and most importantly, Ōkawa timing his run such that he isn't in an offside position, leading to a calmly taken goal. Both the assist and goal showed great situational awareness from both players.

Yoichi Isagi's 1st Volley – Team Y vs Team Z

The match against Team Y was level, but Niko's mastery over the field led to many moments of panic for Team Z, but in one of those moments, Isagi managed to intercept the pass from Niko to Ōkawa, and through a team-effort involving Kunigami, who held the ball despite being pressured by two defenders, before passing it to Bachira, whose inspired dribbling allowed him to cut past two others before crossing it into the box where it seemed to be setting up Gagamaru for one of his textbook diving headers, but it was actually for Isagi, who had run the length of the field after his game-saving interception, to tuck away a volley into the top-left corner. It is the perfect example of a team effort, and the one-touch finish wound up becoming one of Isagi's main weapons later in the series.

Nagi's Awakening – Team V vs Team Z, episode 9

Seishiro Nagi is a special player, an example of simple genius. During the game between Team V and Team Z, Nagi, who up until that point was playing football just because his friend Reo wanted to, discovered the thrill and satisfaction of effort. Through this discovery, Nagi saw what it meant to clash against other talented people with his full might, learning that football for him is an expression of his curiosity, unleashing an insane spinning volley into the back of the net from a tight position in midair in front of the near post. It is simply an extraordinary goal and a defining moment in the career of a real superstar.

Bachira's Solo Dribble Rabona Chip, Team V vs Team Z

Bachira's Solo Rabona Goal – Blue Lock Puskas Awards

Spurred on by the brilliance of Team V, who were beating them 3-0 at that point, Bachira passed the ball to Isagi and asked for it back, deciding to overcome his limits in a dribble that showcased flawless execution of various skills, confusing Reo's eyes with a high-speed samba before hitting a 360 spin to get past him. When the fast Zantetsu caught up and even got in front of Bachira, he used an in-air elastico to slip-past him with ease. Bachira's fancy footwork allowed him to give two defenders the slip at the same time before hitting an impressive rainbow flick over the last defender, finishing it all off with a rabona chip. It was the perfect example of a solo goal and sweetly reminiscent of the "Jogo Bonito" (Brazilian Portuguese for "The Beautiful Game") brand of football exemplified by the legendary Brazil, AC Milan, and Barcelona midfielder Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, better known as Ronaldinho.

Itoshi Rin Corner Goal, Red Team vs White Team 3-on-3, episode 13

Rin Itoshi Scores Directly From Corner – Blue Lock Puskas Award

Rin Itoshi has a number of stunning goals in Blue Lock, showing an uncanny ability to score from almost anywhere while also boasting incredible vision. His ability to score from set pieces is a great asset for any player, but this is taken to the extreme during a corner kick against Isagi's team when, instead of sending it in so someone else can have an attempt on goal, Rin takes a curling shot that would make David Beckham proud.

And The Winner Is...

The Blue Lock Season 1 Puskas Award Winner: Meguru Bachira

Blue Lock season 1 was filled with various great goals that all emphasized different aspects of the game, but there's one that combined the excitement of seeing expert dribbling and skills, ball control, confidence, situational awareness and the creative spark needed to be able to take back a goal from a disadvantage and inspire one's teammates. As such, Meguru Bachira is a candidate that would be fully deserving of a Puskas Award if he'd scored that goal in real life. The goal was simply the embodiment of the freedom Bachira feels when playing the sport, hence highlighting football's beauty and artistry.

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