Mohamed Salah won the Puskas Award at the FIFA Best Awards on Tuesday (AEST) but the decision was met with derision, as it appeared that his curling effort was well behind other nominees like Gareth Bale's UEFA Champions League final acrobatic finish, Cristiano Ronaldo's bicycle kick in the quarter-finals and Australian Riley McGree's scorpion kick.
Benjamin Pavard’s stunning World Cup volley was also unlucky to miss out to Salah's effort.
However, a public vote run by FIFA determined his strike against Everton in December of 2017 was the best goal scored anywhere in the world last season.
Surprisingly, Salah’s goal against Everton didn’t even win Premier League goal of the month.
Jermain Defoe’s Marco van Basten impression against Crystal Palace earned the veteran striker the December 2017 honour for best goal of the month, though the 35-year-old had to settle for the lesser honour than Salah in the end.
A public vote only accounts for 10 per cent of the weighting in the monthly Premier League award, with the other 90 per cent judged from a panel of experts.
The awards saw a number of contradictions based on the voting set up, with the Best Goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois, not included in the Best XI.
Similarly, Mohamed Salah, despite being named as one of the three best players in the world, failed to make the FIFPro XI, with the latter award voted on by professional footballers around the world.
