James Rodríguez wins beauty stakes but Stephanie Roche runs him close
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Version 0 of 1. For a few nerve-jangling seconds, the cameras homed in on two players who come from opposing ends of the sporting stratosphere. The prize at stake was the Puskas award, for the most beautiful goal of the year. Just for that moment it was perfect. Here was a scenario that was so crazily improbable, the fact it was happening with no one knowing which way it would go made it a telling moment in modern football in itself. The public voted in their millions, and there was the well-known chiselled baby face of James Rodríguez (feted since boyhood and transferred over the past two summers for a combined fee of almost £100m) accompanied by that of Stephanie Roche (most recently of Albi in France’s Division 1 Féminine, where she earned £650 a month plus living expenses, and whose own jewel came in an Irish women’s game watched by 95 people). The third nominee, Robin van Persie, was not present at the glitzy Fifa gala in Zurich, which sharpened the focus on what turned out to be the top two. Rodríguez, with 42% of the 3.3 million votes cast, was the winner, called up to the stage to celebrate a sumptuous volley which caught so much global imagination at the World Cup in Brazil. That Roche’s own volley (preceded with two flicks – one with each foot) collected 33% of the vote – three times as much as Van Persie, incidentally – remains significant. Not only was she the first woman to reach the final three, it was also recognition for football outside the highest level. Rodríguez said it “deserved to win, but only one can”. There are four main criteria for the award: the beauty of the goal, fair play, it being down to design not luck, and most crucially in terms of Roche, “the importance of the match should be taken into account”. No one could pretend Peamount United v Wexford Youths has quite the same importance as a match at the World Cup finals in Brazil. It was pure chance the moment was filmed, enabling it to become a YouTube sensation. The Puskas award, so named after the Hungarian Ferenc Puskas, one of the finest strikers to etch his name into the game’s history, is presented in honour of the most aesthetic goal of the year. All three were examples of sparkling ingenuity and worthy of wide appreciation. For Rodríguez, the goal also represented a moment when his career span off into a new direction. He had already been Colombia’s brightest spark as they cruised with such dash and dynamism through the group stage of the World Cup. In the knockouts, at the Maracanã – such a symbolic place in the football landscape – he scored a goal that would make him one of the most talked about young talents around. Cushioning the ball with his chest, he unleashed a dipping volley that was joyous. It is overstating it to suggest his star was born last summer in Brazil, where he finished the tournament’s top scorer. He had been a wonderkid in Colombia and Argentina, and won eight medals during his three years at Porto. Still, that goal against Uruguay does in some way capture the exact moment a fine player was transformed into a world phenomenon. You can almost pinpoint that as the second his status shifted from the highly admired young Colombian who ought to have been playing somewhere better than Monaco to expensive sidekick of Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale at Real Madrid, where everything you do is under the brightest of spotlights. Roche can go back to her life now, although arguably no woman footballer has had the same level of attention over the past month, so perhaps it will be a bit strange. Previous winners of the Puskas award, now in its sixth year, have included Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Even Roche’s disappointed supporters would be hard pressed to say Rodríguez was not a worthy name to add to the list. Women’s world player of the year Nadine Kessler (Wolfsburg and Germany) World coach of the year (men’s football) Joachim Löw (Germany) World coach of the year (women’s football) Ralf Kellermann (Wolfsburg) |