Morocco and Algeria are present.. FIFA selects the 12 most beautiful goals of the World Cup

The International Football Federation (FIFA) has released the final list of contenders for the award for the best goal in the 2026 World Cup finals, which was held by the United States of America, Mexico and Canada and ended last Sunday with Spain’s second title in history.

The International Federation revealed that only 12 goals were selected from the 308 goals scored throughout the tournament, which went down in history as the highest-scoring match in World Cup history since the first start in 1930, and called on fans around the world to vote for the most beautiful goal from this carefully selected list.

FIFA has clarified that the public voting process for selecting the best goal of the tournament will continue until July 27, that is, one week after the end of the competition, so that as many fans as possible can vote and choose the goal that deserves to be crowned with this prestigious award.

In a disappointing surprise, the final list was completely devoid of any goals from the eight Arab teams that took part in the tournament – Morocco, Algeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq and Jordan – despite the good performance of some teams and the beautiful goals scored by their players during the World Cup.

On the other hand, and ironically, 3 of the 12 goals on the list were scored by Arab teams, meaning that a quarter of the contenders for the award came from Arab teams.

Argentinian star Lionel Messi, captain of his country’s runner-up team, topped the list of contenders with his stunning goal against Algeria in the first round of Group Ten group stage matches, one of three goals scored against Arab teams.

French star Kylian Mbappe, the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer and 2026 top scorer with 10 goals, also made the list thanks to his showpiece goal against Senegal in the first round of the Group 9 group stage.

Also present in the nominations was Spain forward Ferran Torres, who scored the only golden goal in the final against Argentina at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, which gave his country its second ever World Cup title after South Africa in 2010.

In addition to Torres’ goal in the final, the list includes Atletico Madrid star Argentine striker Julian Alvarez’s goal against Switzerland in the quarter-final match, which Argentina won and qualified for the semi-finals.

Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham was present from England with his superb goal against France in the third and fourth place match, which the Three Lions won and won the bronze medal.

The list also saw the presence of Norwegian star Erling Haaland, Manchester City’s lethal striker thanks to his exceptional goal against the Brazilian giants in the Round of 16 match that saw the Seleção’s shock exit from the tournament.

In the remaining categories, Bosnian player Karim Alibegovic’s name appeared with his excellent goal against Qatar in Group 2 in the third round of the group stage matches, making this the second of three goals against Arab teams on the list.

Also included in the list was Cape Verdean forward Sidney Cabral’s goal in the Round of 32 match against defending champions Argentina in one of the surprises the tournament witnessed before Tango managed to overcome the ban and progress to the next round.

Haiti’s International Federation nominated striker Wilson Isidore’s goal, which he scored against Morocco in the third round of group stage matches of the third group, so that this third goal scored against the Arab teams will be included in the final list.

The nominations also included the presence of New Zealand striker Elijah Gast with his unique goal against Iran in the group stage matches, in addition to Japan’s Daizen Maeda’s goal against Sweden in the group stage as well.

The list was completed by the goal of Uzbek striker Eldor Shomurodov, which he scored in the group stage matches against the Democratic Republic of Congo, thus completing the list of twelve goals for the prestigious award.