Marcin Oleksy of Poland became the first amputee footballer to win the FIFA Puskas Award in 2022. He got his nomination after scoring with his stunning overhead kick finish.
Marcin Oleksy received the 2022 Puskas Award for his amazing overhead kick finish. He succedeed defeating superb attempts from both Dimitri Payet and Richarlison. The Polish amputee footballer scored the stunning goal while playing for Warta Poznan. From that goal, he became the first amputee player to be get in the list for the award. Not only in the nomination list but he is the first to win it in such condition.
Brazil’s Richarlison, with his fantastic touch and bicycle kick finish against Serbia, steals the show at the 2022 World Cup. As a result he was able to make up the top three. Similarly, Marseille’s Payet made the list with an outstanding long-range half-volley shot. Oleksy, a football player who lost both of his limbs in 2010 due to an accident at work, finished ahead of the two well-known players in European football thanks to a fantastic overhead kick of his own.
Oleksy’s nomination and victory in such a prestigious prize pave the door for a more inclusive football future. The finest goalkeepers, coaches, and players in men’s and women’s football will also receive awards that evening in Paris.
Marcin Oleksy: The Story Behind the Success
On November 20, 2010, construction worker Oleksy, now 35, experienced a fatal accident. As a car drove off the road and into his path, he was filling a hole in the road. After the then 23-year-legs old’s were crushed, he expressed his first concerns about “whether I would survive or die” in an interview with FIFA+ earlier this year.
Upon being transported to the hospital and after receiving painkiller treatment there, Oleksy was in and out of consciousness.
“Then, after the procedure, I woke up,” Oleksy remarked. “That’s when I realized what had occurred. I had lost one of my legs. I wasn’t depressed about it. Perhaps since I had already seen how my legs appeared following the accident, I had mentally prepared myself for that.
