The Goal of the Year in Germany is, like the '' Goal of the Month'' ( Tor des Monats), the ''Goal of the Decade'' and ''Goal of the Century'', an individual football award selected by spectators of the ''

Sportschau ''Sportschau'' is a German sports magazine on broadcaster ARD, produced by WDR in Cologne. The magazine started in 1961. In its Saturday' edition, the ''Sportschau'' shows a summary of the Bundesliga, whereas the Sunday edition reports on the la ...

'' ( ARD German TV), among spectacular or important football goals scored in or for Germany.

Klaus Fischer Klaus Fischer (born 27 December 1949) is a German former professional footballer and coach. He was a key player on the West Germany national team that lost the 1982 World Cup final to Italy. As a forward, he was noted for his bicycle kicks, ...

won it three times; his 1977 "

Bicycle kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick, scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before d ...

" was also pronounced ''Goal of the Century''. He scored it on 16 November 1977 in the international game of Germany versus Switzerland in the

Neckarstadion Mercedes-Benz Arena () is a stadium located in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany and home to German Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart. Before 1993 it was called Neckarstadion (), named after the nearby river Neckar and between 1993 and Jul ...

, Stuttgart.

Details

The ''Goal of the Month Award'' and its sister event, the ''Goal of the Year Award'', were incepted in 1971 by the German TV station ARD, one of two public broadcasting channels. Each month, the GotM is held, and five especially spectacular, unusual or important goals are shortlisted for the viewers to vote on. Initially votes were only cast per mail, but nowadays votes are commonly made by

telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...

or over the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. The winner gets a golden plaque which is one of the most-sought individual awards in German football. The 12 winners are then eligible for the big annual event, the GotY Award. Again, the goal with the most votes wins. Parallel to this, the 10 annual winners may participate in the ''Goal of the Decade Award'', and in 1999, the ''Goal of the Decade'' of the 70s, 80s and 90s squared off for the ''Goal of the Century Award'', see above.

Winners

Goal of the Year scorers

Goal of the Decade

* 1970s: Klaus Fischer (1977) - bicycle kick * 1980s: Klaus Augenthaler (1989) - goal from the middle circle * 1990s: Bernd Schuster (1994) - goal from the middle circle

Goal of the Century

* Klaus Fischer (1970s)

Notable cases

*In the most cases, spectacular and flashy goals win the ''Goal of the Year Award''. But also

Oliver Bierhoff Oliver Bierhoff (born 1 May 1968) is a German football official and former player who played as a forward. He has previously served as the national team director of the German Football Association. A tall, strong and prolific goalscorer, Bierh ...

's decisive goal to win the

1996 European Football Championship The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

and Nia Künzer's header goal in the

FIFA Women's World Cup 2003 The 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial championship of women's national soccer teams organized by FIFA. It was held in the United States from September 20 to October 12, 2003, at s ...

were elected GotYs despite being rather unspectacular save for the circumstances. *

Bernd Schuster Bernd Schuster (born 22 December 1959) is a German former professional footballer of the late 1970s through early 1990s, who won club titles playing for the Spanish sides FC Barcelona (1980–1987) and Real Madrid (1988–1990). He played as a m ...

once managed to score the first, second and third most popular goal in the 1994 edition of ''Goal of the Year Award''. *Klaus Fischer scored the ''Goal of the Year'' in 1975, 1977 and 1982, and is the only player to have won three times. His 1982 GotY came in the 1982 FIFA World Cup semifinals against France, equalizing with a bicycle kick in the 108th minute. Two-time winners are

Günter Netzer Günter Theodor Netzer (born 14 September 1944) is a German former professional football player, executive and pundit. He achieved great success in Germany with Borussia Mönchengladbach in the early 1970s and, after moving to Spain in 1973, w ...

, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Gerd Müller,

Lothar Matthäus Lothar Herbert Matthäus (; born 21 March 1961) is a German football pundit and former professional player and manager. After captaining West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup where he lifted the World Cup trophy, he was awarded the ...

and

Raúl Raul, Raúl and Raül are the Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Galician, Asturian, Basque, Aragonese, and Catalan forms of the Anglo-Germanic given name Ralph or Rudolph. They are cognates of the French Raoul. Raul, Raúl or Raül may re ...

. *

(1972 and 1973) and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (1980 and 1981) are the only players to score two consecutive ''Goals of the Year''. *The oldest player was the 79-year-old

Kurt Meyer Kurt Meyer (23 December 1910 – 23 December 1961) was an SS commander and convicted war criminal of Nazi Germany. He served in the Waffen-SS (the combat branch of the SS) and participated in the Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, and ot ...

, the only woman yet is Nia Künzer. *Twice, own goals have won the ''Goal of the Month Award''. ''Helmut Winklhofer'' once spectacularly smashed a wild 20-metre kick into his own goal, and another time, a horrified ''Frank Rohde'' saw his goalie kicking over his harmless back-pass.

References

External links

*
ARD-Sportschau
* {{in lang, de}

Association football goal of the year awards Kicker-Torjägerkanone Award winners Football in Germany lists German football trophies and awards Awards established in 1971 1971 establishments in West Germany