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Gareth Bale surprised by Puskas snub

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Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale feels the Puskas Award was made to look ‘diminished’ after his overhead kick for Real Madrid in the Champions League final was snubbed.

Mohamed Salah took the prize at Fifa’s The Best awards for his superb solo goal for Liverpool in a Merseyside derby against Everton in the Premier League.

But even Salah’s Liverpool teammate James Milner appeared surprised by the Puskas decision, poking fun at his colleague on social media.

‘Congrats Mohamed Salah on your seventh best goal from last season winning goal of the year #baller #topbin #oneofmanyworldies,’ Milner tweeted.

And Bale was shocked he did not take home the award, which is decided by a fan vote, for a wonderful acrobatic effort that helped Madrid beat Liverpool in this year’s Champions League final.

‘Yeah, I was surprised by that, to be honest. What can you say?’ Bale said in a FourFourTwo interview.

‘It makes the award look a little diminished, although it was obviously a great goal by Salah.’

Bale scored twice off the bench against Liverpool, as Madrid won the Champions League for the third year in a row, and the Wales star believes the supreme bicycle kick was the best of his career.

‘It was instinctive. I got my body positioned correctly, got my footwork right, and caught it perfectly,’ Bale added. ‘When you catch the ball perfectly, you know it’s on target.

‘You just have to hope the keeper doesn’t make an unbelievable save. So as soon as I hit it, I knew it had a chance of going in. If you watch it, you see my head turn straight away. I knew where the ball was going.

‘I think you’d have to say that [it was my best goal]. There haven’t been too many like that. I did love the one in the [2014] Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, but as this one was on such a big stage – the Champions League final, the biggest game in club football – and technically it was the winner, I’d have to say that it’s the best,’ he concluded.

Photo: FourFourTwo