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Mohd Faiz Subri is the first Malaysian to win the FIFA Puskas Award for best goal

Malaysia is proud

10.01.2017

By Rachel Au

Mohd Faiz Subri is the first Malaysian to win the FIFA Puskas Award for best goal

History has been made as Malaysian footballer Mohd Faiz Subri from Penang FA has won the FIFA Puskas Award 2016 for his phenomenal physics-defying goal against Pahang back in February 2016 – a first for our country. 

The winner of the award is determined by the most number of online votes and Mohd Faiz Subri scored nearly 60 per cent to beat Brazil’s Marlone and Venezuela’s Daniuska Rodriguez, although the initial list included other world-famous footballers such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. 

Past winners include Cristiano Ronaldo (2009), Hamit Altintop (2010), Neymar (2011), Miroslav Stoch (2012), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (2013), James Rodriguez (2014) and Wendell Lira (2015) – and now there’s a Malaysian name to add to that list. 

mohd faiz subri fifa puskas award 2016

The 29-year-old was handed the FIFA award by Brazillian legend Ronaldo at Monday’s FIFA Best Football ceremony. In his acceptance speech, he said, “This is the best moment of my life. I never imagined that I would ever win this award. My first thought was to ring my family because without them I would not be a professional footballer.”

“This is an award not just for me and my club but for the whole of Malaysia. When I went up on the stage to collect it, I honestly didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t believe that I was in the same company as some of the true greats of football.”

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