• Europa League

'It is 100% the best goal I've seen live'

ESPN staff
October 24, 2014
Erik Lamela wheels away in celebration after his "rabona" magic © Getty Images
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Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen says Erik Lamela's stunning "rabona" strike against Asteras Tripolis should already have won him the Puskas award for the best goal of 2014.

Lamela, 22, planted his right leg and wrapped his left foot around it to strike the ball into the far corner for Spurs' second goal in Thursday's 5-1 Europa League victory at White Hart Lane.

FIFA gives the Puskas award to the player deemed to have scored the most beautiful goal of the year, and Vertonghen - and the majority of the crowd at White Hart Lane - was left dazzled by the technique displayed by Lamela.

"I was stunned - for two minutes I was just thinking about that goal," he told reporters after the game. "It is 100% the best goal I've seen live. I've seen a lot of YouTube clips, but I've never seen a goal like it. I think the Puskas award is already his."

In 2009, FIFA president Sepp Blatter introduced the award in honour of Ferenc Puskas, the legendary Real Madrid and Hungary striker of the 1950s and 1960s, with its past winners including Cristiano Ronaldo (2009), Hamit Altintop (2010), Neymar (2011), Miroslav Stoch (2012) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2013).

Lamela - who posted a replay of the goal on Instagram - played down the skill involved, saying: "I don't know how to explain it. Goals like this are just instinctive - I got lucky.

"Maybe my right foot is not very good so I had to use my left."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
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