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Featured Image Credit: Alamy & Twitter: River Plate
Topics: Football, Tottenham Hotspur, Sevilla, River Plate, Erik Lamela, Premier League, FIFA, La Liga
Rory O'Callaghan
Topics: Football, Tottenham Hotspur, Sevilla, River Plate, Erik Lamela, Premier League, FIFA, La Liga
Erik Lamela’s incredible rabona goal for Tottenham against Arsenal was named as the winner of the 2021 Puskas Award on Monday.
Former Spurs winger Lamela, who is now at Sevilla, scored the incredible goal in an action-packed north London derby at the Emirates last season.
Lamela produced the instinctive finish to put Tottenham ahead in the match but was later sent off for two bookable offences, with Arsenal going on to win 2-1.
It is not the first, or even second, time that Lamela has scored using the rabona.
He previously achieved the feat for Tottenham in a Europa League match against Greek side Asteras Tripolis in 2014.
And footage has resurfaced of Lamela scoring another incredible rabona goal earlier in his career while playing for boyhood club River Plate back in his native Argentina.
The video shows Lamela running through on goal before expertly chipping the ball over the onrushing goalkeeper.
River Plate posted the clip to Twitter on Monday, alongside the caption: “Crack from the cradle.
“@ErikLamela winner of the #Puskas award for his tremendous goal from rabona for the @SpursOfficial.
“Congratulations Erik! #TheBest.”
Lamela’s strike against Arsenal was announced as the 2021 winner of the Puskas Award at the FIFA Best ceremony on Monday.
He beat competition from Patrick Schick and Mehdi Taremi to win the award.
Schick was nominated for his incredible long-range effort for the Czech Republic against Scotland at Euro 2020, while Taremi was up for the award after scoring an acrobatic overhead kick for Porto against Chelsea in the Champions League.
Lamela becomes the second Tottenham player to win the award in as many years after Son Heung-min claimed last year's prize for a superb solo goal against Burnley.
Spurs are the first club in the history of the Puskas Award to have a player win the award in two consecutive years.