The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Paris, which begins at 9 p.m., new outlets reported.
Oleksy has been shortlisted for the beautiful volley goal he scored for Warta Poznań against Stal Rzeszów in the Polish league last autumn.
Oleksy, Richarlison, Payet
The two other contenders for the Puskás Award are Brazil’s Richarlison, whose stunning strike against Serbia won the Goal of the Tournament Award at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar; and France’s Dmitri Payet, who scored a magnificent long-range goal for Olympique Marseille against PAOK Thessaloniki, in last season’s UEFA Conference League.
'I always wanted to score a beautiful goal'
Poland’s Oleksy described his spectacular strike in the following way: "My teammate Dawid [Novak] played the pass. When I saw him approaching the ball, I knew it was coming to me. I connected really cleanly. It was pure.”
He added, as quoted by the FIFA website: “When I hit it, I was following the ball all the way with my eyes and I saw it go into the corner of the net. I always wanted to score a beautiful goal. You could see how proud it made me after I scored. I stood up tall, I put my chest out. I was just so, so happy.”
FIFA noted that Oleksy represented Poland at the 2022 Amputee World Cup, helping his side reach the round of 16, where they lost narrowly 2-1 to Brazil.
Neymar, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo
The winner of the Puskás Award will be decided on the basis of voting by football fans and expert panelists, officials said.
In previous years, the prestigious accolade was won by the likes of Brazil’s Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic of Sweden and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, the polskieradio24.pl website reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: FIFA, polskieradio24.pl
