Turkey and Bayern Munich midfielder Hamit Altintop picked up the Ferenc Puskas award at the 2010 FIFA Ballon D’OR Gala for goal of the year, beating off competition from Amakhosi winger Siphiwe Tshabalala who was one of ten nominees that included goals from the likes of 2010 Fifa Ballon D’Or Player of the year Lionel Messi as well as Dutch stars Arjen Robben and Giovanni Van Bronkhorst who were up for the prize.

Tshabalala was in attendance at the awards ceremony in Zurich where his fantastically executed left footed strike for Bafana Bafana against Mexico which was the opening goal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup lost out to Altintop’s wonder goal for the Turkish national team during a Euro 2012 qualifying game against Kazakhstan in September last year.

Over a million votes were cast on FIFA.com and for the second year in succession a South African player was amongst the nominees for the goal of the year award but could not garner enough votes to pick up the prize. In 2009 Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana striker Katlego Mphela also made the list of nominees for goal of the year award.

At Monday evening's ceremony in Zurich there was still reason for South African’s to be cheerful as FIFA President Sepp Blatter awarded his special and presidential award to the Honourable Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu.