In some respects, it was the goal that sparked Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus. Now it’s been named the UEFA Goal of the Season 2017-18, and there was never really any doubt.
For all the goals scored by the likes of Liverpool, Barcelona and Manchester City in the Champions League, no goal quite compared to the Cristiano Ronaldo bicycle kick against Juventus.
Ronaldo’s incredible shot was named the UEFA Goal of the Season 2017-18 on Tuesday in one of the more obvious awards choices you’ll ever see.
Congratulations @cristiano, Goal of the Season winner!
Ronaldo topped the poll with nearly 200,000 of the total 346,915 votes!Past winners, rest of the Top 11, voting info...
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 28, 2018
Thanks to everyone who voted for me. Will never forget that moment, specially the reaction of the fans in the stadium. #UEFA Goal of the Season #SpecialMoment pic.twitter.com/9teapgD9MW
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) August 28, 2018
Ronaldo has scored plenty of amazing goals throughout his career, but this might have been his best. It was a goal so magnificent the Juventus crowd in Turin applauded him. Ronaldo has said that display of respect was part of the reason he chose to move to the Italian club during the summer.
Ronaldo’s goal beat out a great play from Eva Navarro in the UEFA Women’s U-17 Championships and a wonderstrike from Dimitri Payet in the Europa League, not that either really had a chance against Ronaldo.
You came, you saw, you voted.
Here are the in the result of the vote for UEFA Goal of the Season 17/18... pic.twitter.com/JnyWUAkLGs— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 28, 2018
It’s the second straight year the UEFA Goal of the Season came from a Juventus vs. Real Madrid matchup, with Mario Mandžukić’s goal against Los Blancos in the final of the 2017 tournament winning the honor a year ago. Prior to that, Lionel Messi won Goal of the Season in 2016 and 2015.