It rocketed from outside the penalty area into the roof of the net in seven-tenths of a second. It went viral at equally supersonic speed.
Within 90 minutes – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, WhatsApp and YouTube were forefronting social media’s popularity boom – millions had seen it. Millions that didn’t, astonishingly, include its author.
The goal was scored 15 years ago today, in the 26th minute of Türkiye’s UEFA EURO 2012 qualifier in Kazakhstan. Emre Belozoglu sailed a corner towards Hamit Altintop, who was lurking, unguarded, on the edge of the box. The Bayern Munich midfielder let the ball drift across his body and, with immaculate technique, thundered a dipping volley home.
“I remember that I hit the ball with my eyes closed,” explained Altintop. “I closed them so I could focus all my power on the shot and hit it as hard as I could. When I opened them again the ball was in the back of the net. I only saw how it had gone in hours later on TV!”
It helped a Türkiye team including Hamit’s twin brother Halil, Belozoglu, Arda Turan, Nihat Kahveci and Tuncay Sanli win 3-0. It earned the elder Altintop – he pipped his sibling to birth by 12 minutes – a nomination for the FIFA Puskás Award and, consequently, an invite to a ceremony now known as The Best FIFA Football Awards™.
There, four months later, Lionel Messi was not only competing against his Barcelona team-mates Andres Iniesta and Xavi for the top men’s prize, but also against Altintop and others for the best-goal gong. Competition for it was fiercer than it was for seats inside a packed Kongresshaus in Zurich. There were 2010 FIFA World Cup™ thunderbolts from Siphiwe Tshabalala and Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Matty Burrows’ mind-blowing flying back-heel, a chest, flick, swivel and volley from Linus Hallenius, Samir Nasri’s dribble for the ages, Neymar dropping defenders like flies and Kumi Yokoyama’s Diego Maradona-compared beauty.
“The Puskás Award was new, everyone was talking about it,” said Altintop. “Cristiano Ronaldo won the first Puskás, so that made it even bigger.
“I was up against amazing players like Messi, Robben, Neymar. Tshabalala and Giovanni van Bronckhorst had also scored amazing goals at the World Cup, which is obviously the biggest stage. I really didn’t expect to win.”
Altintop was as surprised at the winner’s announcement as he was at watching his wonder goal for the first time. He was presented with the FIFA Puskás Award by Andrei Sidelnikov, the goalkeeper whom he’d scored his jaw-dropper past, smiles emblazoned across both their faces.
“Emre sent over a really good corner, and I decided to have a go straight away,” said Altintop to a crowd including football legends including Emilio Butragueno, Ali Daei, Didier Deschamps, Lothar Matthaus, Roger Milla, Gunter Netzer, Jean-Pierre Papin, Michael Platini, Marco van Basten and George Weah. “In situations like these you shouldn’t really weigh up the pros and cons – you should just try your luck. It might not have been my most important goal, but it was certainly my most spectacular.
“My brother and I used to play football together, just the two of us. We were always trying to score in each other’s goal. I always liked the way Ronald Koeman and Ingo Anderbrugge used to shoot. They were the guys I tried to emulate as a kid. I’m obviously very thankful that I’ve got this skill for long-distance shots.
“It’s not that bad to write a bit of history like this. I’m very happy about this award and later I’ll have a drink and say cheers to a few of the players here.”
Altintop could have never imagined, as the ball approached his right boot in Astana, that a strike lasting merely 0.7 seconds would still be wowed about 15 years later.
FIFA Puskás Award winners
2009: Cristiano Ronaldo
2010: Hamit Altintop
2011: Neymar
2012: Miroslav Stoch
2013: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
2014: James Rodriguez
2015: Wendell Lira
2016: Mohd Faiz Subri
2017: Olivier Giroud
2018: Mohamed Salah
2019: Daniel Zsori
2020: Song Heungmin
2021: Erik Lamela
2022: Marcin Oleksy
2023: Guilherme Madruga
2024: Alejandro Garnacho
Further reading
Watch every FIFA Puskás Award winner
Garnacho rates iconic Puskás Award winners
The fastest goals in World Cup history
The Bull of the Bosphorus bolts into history
When sportsmanship reduced players to tears
