Ladies and gentlemen, we may have a Puskas Award winner in our midst and his name is Walter Bou.
The 30-year-old striker, who plays his club football for Argentine Primera Division side Club Atletico Lanus, scored one of goals of 2024 during the latter stages of Sunday night's league clash against Tigre.
At the time, Lanus were pushing for a winner at 2-2 after a brace from former Atletico Madrid and Benfica winger Eduardo Salvio kept them in the game.
And with seconds remaining inside the 47,000-capacity Estadio Ciudad de Lanus, experienced centre-forward Bou chested down a cross before setting himself up for an outrageous bicycle-kick from outside the box.
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The ball hovered in the air for what seemed like an eternity before chipping goalkeeper Felipe Tomas Zenobio, who stood helplessly still as Bou celebrated his last-gasp winner. Check this out:
Here's how fans on social media reacted to the goal.
One wrote: "The goalkeeper not moving and the celebration just made it 10x better," while another commented: "Just give Walter Bou the Puskas award now."
A third said: "Watching this live was just crazy… scoring a game winner like this is just insane."
A fourth wrote: "Has to be top five goals I’ve ever seen in my life, an 89th minute winner too??? Unreal," and a fifth added: "This is the Puskas winner. Ticks all the boxes: sheer audacity, amazing technique, last minute winner, competitive game."
Lanus climbed to ninth in the Primera Division thanks to their late win on Sunday night, whilst Tigre continued their poor start to the campaign. They sit 21st in the table with two wins from a possible nine.
Back in January, Guilherme Madruga beat Brighton's Julio Enciso and Sporting Lisbon's Nuno Santos to lift the 2024 Puskas Award.
The 23-year-old midfielder, who was on loan at Botafogo SP last season, netted a 25 yard bicycle kick for the Brazilian side in their clash against Novorizontino.
“This kind of creativity is always on show in Brazilian football. I try to dribble and be creative, and I just tried to pull something out of the hat and got lucky," he told FIFA after being nominated for the award.
"I had Rivaldo and Ronaldinho Gaucho for inspiration, as they scored similar types of goals. So I believe I’m one of them in terms of the creativity of that moment."
Topics: Argentina
Jack Kenmare