James and Diego Costa Nominated for the Puskás Award

World football’s governing body, FIFA, released the nominees for the FIFA Puskás Award, a prize that is awarded to the scorer of the year’s best goal. Fans from across the globe will be the judges and they will pick the winner from the 10 chosen by FIFA’s Football Commission.

Amongst the nominees are James Rodríguez and Diego Costa, two players who continue to be active in Spanish football and who might take the prize due to their actions last season. The Colombian, who signed for Real Madrid in the summer, scored one of the goals of the year during the 2014 World Cup against Uruguay, sealing his side’s place in the quarterfinals in the process on the biggest stage of all at the Maracanã.

Meanwhile, one of Liga BBVA’s top goalscorers from last season, Diego Costa, is also up for the gong. 23 November 2013 will live long in the memory of Atlético Madrid fans thanks to their 7-0 hammering of Getafe, and in particular their Brazil-born Spain forward will remember it for a long time. It was in the 68th minute when the forward wowed the Estadio Vicente Calderón with an acrobatic bicycle kick that made it 5-0 to his team.

FIFA.com and francefootball.fr users will be the ones charged with deciding the winner, and it will be done in two phases. Firstly, they will vote until 1 December to choose the three finalists, and from then another voting process will be opened to decide the winner, who will be announced on 12 January 2015 at the FIFA Ballon d'Or ceremony.