The FIFA Puskás Award is an award established on 20 October
2009 by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA), at the behest of then-president Sepp Blatter, to be
awarded to the male or female, judged to have scored the most
aesthetically significant, or "most beautiful", goal of the calendar
year.
The award is in honour of Ferenc Puskás, the striker of Real
Madrid during the late 1950s and the 1960s, and central member
of the highly successful Hungarian side of the same era. Puskás is
widely considered by many to be the most powerful and prolific
forward European football produced in first-division football, and
was honoured by IFFHS in 1997 as the best top-tier goalscorer of
the 20th century. Puskás scored 511 goals in 533 games and his 84
national team's goals in 85 outings was a world record at the
time.

"It is important to preserve the memory of those footballing
greats who have left their mark on our history. Ferenc Puskás was
not only a player with immense talent who won many honours,
but also a remarkable man. FIFA is therefore delighted to pay
tribute to him by dedicating this award to his memory," said
Blatter at the inauguration of the award in Budapest.[citation
needed]
Until 2018, the winner was decided completely based on voting
by fans on FIFA's official website. However, after a controversy in
the 2018 award, FIFA changed the procedure. Now, the award is
decided by pundits selected by FIFA, who will choose the winner
based on the top three goals voted for by the public.
The time-frame for the first award was July 2008 to July 2009. The
annual award was presented for the first time during the 2009
FIFA World Player of the Year Gala on 21 December in
Switzerland, with Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo being the
first prize winner.