Three female footballers nominated for Puskas Award

Most women contenders in history of award, which is given for best goal scored

By Emre Asikci

ANKARA (AA) – Three women are on the 10-player shortlist for the FIFA Puskas Award for the first time in its history.

American forward Amy Rodriguez, 32, Northern Ireland defender Billie Simpson, 27 and Cameroonian forward Ajara Nchout, 26, are among the 10 nominees this year.

Previously, Australian forward Lisa De Vanna and French midfielder Louisa Cadamuro were nominated only once in 2013.

FIFA said in a statement on its website that "70 meters from goal was the distance from which Amy Rodriguez collected possession en route to scoring her contender. No player has ever won the FIFA Puskas Award having received possession so far out”.

Barcelona Superstar Lionel Messi and Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic also made the cut on the list.

Messi has been nominated for the award seven times, followed by Brazil's Neymar (5) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (4) while Liverpool forward Mo Salah won the award last year for his goal against Everton in the English Premier League.

The award was first given by FIFA in 2009 to players judged to have scored the most aesthetically significant and beautiful goal of the year.

The Puskas Award is in honor of Ferenc Puskas, a forward for Real Madrid in the late 1950s and 1960s, and one of most indispensable members of the Hungarian team of that era.

All goals selected for consideration for this year’s award were scored between July 16, 2018 and July 19, 2019.

Meanwhile, the Best FIFA Football Awards for 2019 are set to be held in Milan on Sept. 23.

The full list of 2019 Puskas Award nominees are as follows:

Billie Simpson - Sion Swifts Ladies FC v Cliftonville Ladies FC (Aug. 9, 2018)

Fabio Quagliarella - Sampdoria v Napoli (Sept. 2, 2018)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic - Toronto FC v LA Galaxy (Sept.15, 2018)

Andros Townsend - Manchester City v Crystal Palace (Dec. 22, 2018)

Juan Fernando Quintero - River Plate vs Racing Club (Feb.10, 2019)

Daniel Zsori - Debrecen FC v Ferencvaros (Feb.16, 2019)

Lionel Messi - Real Betis v FC Barcelona (March 17, 2019)

Matheus Cunha - Bayer Leverkusen v RB Leipzig (April 6, 2019)

Amy Rodriguez - Utah Royals v Sky Blue FC (June 16, 2019)