Bayer Leverkusen missed a chance to go to the top of the Bundesliga table on Saturday, but it wasn’t from lack of trying from the team’s No. 11. Eintracht Frankfurt rallied for a 2-1 victory through an Amin Younes strike and an unfortunate Edmond Tapsoba own goal. Neither will be remembered as long as the Nadiem Amiri goal vs Frankfurt.
It’s not uncommon, at the start of a new year or season, for content creators like ourselves to blurt out that some goal is an early contender for goal of the year. It’s honestly a tired trope and we don’t want to feed into it — at the same time, you gotta see this goal.
Less than 10 minutes into Leverkusen’s first game of 2020, Amiri, a 24-year-old German, took a delightful pass from 17-year-old Florian Wirtz and turned it into a work of art. Amiri nutmegged a defender with his first flicked touch. His second touch gave him an iota of space to then backheel through the legs of keeper Kevin Trapp for a simply astounding goal.
Nadiem Amiri Goal vs Frankfurt
Nadiem Amiri with a backheel nutmeg to give Leverkusen the perfect start to 2021 pic.twitter.com/vs71Vd8NZi
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) January 2, 2021
I could do more to describe the goal or scream expletives and superlatives at you, but little could do justice to properly ascribe the beauty of that goal. Just watch it over and over.
Sadly, this goal likely won’t win the Puskás Award, which annual honors the best goal of the year. Instead, it’ll probably go to a Liverpool player doing something routine or another Premier League player going on a mazy 80-yard run.
The rest of the highlights from the match are available in the video at the top of this page, as if you care about the mundane goals scored by Frankfurt to secure the 2-1 win.
