Goal of the year? Epic Puskas Award contender scored in Brazil

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By Kobe Tong

Published Apr 18, 2022

Ronaldinho, Juninho Pernambucano and Pele are just three of the Brazilians who have mastered the art of the free-kick across the history of football.South America's largest nation plays the beautiful game more beautifully than most, and part and parcel of that has been perfecting set-pieces taken from outside of the penalty area.There's something about the simplicity of taking a long-range shot at goal from a dead ball that clearly lends itself to all the talented ballers to have hailed from Brazil over the years.

The brilliance of Brazilian free-kicks

Whether it's the impudent curling of Ronaldinho or the knuckle-ball magic of Juninho, there are countless Brazilian stars who have converted free-kicks for fun using a variety of different techniques.

However, perhaps the most beautifully simple and effective approach of the bunch actually came from Roberto Carlos, who deployed a different brand of Brazilian brilliance to his free-kick taking.

Thats because the iconic left-back ditched all the fanciness for smashing his free-kicks at goal with a ferocity and venom that has arguably never been recreated since.

Well.. not consistently at least because there was a jaw-dropping goal that was scored this weekend that couldn't help reminding us of Carlos' free-kick proficiency for multiple reasons.

Why? Well, because a left-footed Brazilian left-back just happened to score an outrageous free-kick in similar style to how Carlos would during the peak of his powers with the Selecao.

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Outrageous Roberto Carlos-like free-kick

Fabio Alves has dropped jaws around the world by scoring what we consider to be a FIFA Puskas Award contender with a free-kick taken near the half-way line during a Brazilian third division match.

The Carlos impersonator notched the only goal of the game as Floresta won 1-0 at Vitoria in Serie C and he just happened to do so in a manner that, frankly, looked to defy the laws of physics.

Not only did Alves manage to smash home the free-kick from a range that Juninho would have been proud of, but he made the ball move in ways that we've seldom ever seen before - check it out:

Go on, tell us: how many goals have you seen scored in 2022 which are better than that?

Puskas Award contender

Maybe you have an answer, maybe you don't, but surely we can all agree that Alves' strike was so astonishing, particularly when seen from behind, that it should be in early Puskas Award contention.

Although you never know the mind-bending goals that might be scored between now and FIFA's next ceremony, there's no denying that Alves' screamer is right up there with the early candidates to take the prize.

After all, the way in which the free-kick completely baffled the goalkeeper and then zoomed towards the top corner like a heat-seeking missile makes us want to watch it over and over again.