Glentoran striker Matty Burrows is to attend the Fifa awards ceremony on 10 January after being nominated for the world body's goal of the year award.

All 10 goalscorers who were named on the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or - Puskas prize will attend a gala dinner, followed by the awards ceremony.

Initially it was thought that only the top three would attend the occasion.

Among Burrows' rivals for the prize will be Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben and Arsenal's Samir Nasri.

Burrows' incredible 15-yard back-heeled volley against Portadown in October has been seen by millions on the internet.

The player admitted: "I could maybe try to do that 100 times and it would only come off once - I caught it perfectly."

The 25-year-old's audacious goal came in the 92nd minute of Glentoran's 1-0 home victory in Northern Ireland's Premiership on 5 October.

When Burrows found out he had been nominated for the Fifa prize, named after Hungary legend Ferenc Puskas, he confessed: "The whole thing is unreal and it's only just sinking in."

Messi scored his nominated goal for Barcelona against Valencia when he wriggled past three players before rifling into the bottom corner.

Nasri has been rewarded for a similar effort against Porto, while Robben's was a fine individual effort for Bayern Munich, culminating in a sweet curled finish.

Retired Netherlands captain Giovanni van Bronckhorst is also in contention for his spectacular 30-yarder in the World Cup semi-final defeat of Uruguay, as is South Africa's Siphiwe Tshabalala, who scored the opening goal of the tournament against Mexico.

Kumi Yokoyama of Japan is the only woman shortlisted, with the nominees completed by Neymar (Santos), Hamit Altintop (Turkey) and Linus Hallenius of Sweden's Hammarby, who in one fluid movement took the ball on his chest, flicked it over his head with his right foot and volleyed in with his left from the edge of the box.

All 10 goals can be seen on the Fifa website.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version